Emirates Airline will receive three more A380 aircraft from Airbus this year, with its final plane joining the fleet in November, earlier than the original delivery date of June 2022.
These deliveries will bring Emirates’ fleet of A380s to 118, including six aircraft equipped with Premium Economy seats in a four-class configuration.
The Dubai-based carrier also resumed its A380 services to Manchester airport on Wednesday (September 1), with the wide-body, double-decker aircraft being reintroduced in response to growing passenger demand.
Sir Tim Clark, the airline’s president, said: “We’ve come to an agreement with Airbus to bring forward the delivery of our remaining A380 orders and have secured financing for these units.
“These new aircraft will also add more highly sought-after Premium Economy seats into our inventory, as we prepare to fully launch this cabin product in the coming months.
“Emirates will continue to be the largest operator of this spacious and modern aircraft for the next two decades.”
Emirates’ four-class A380s are currently operating on its Heathrow and Paris Charles De Gaulle routes.
The Premium Economy seats are offered as “spot upgrades for valued customers on a discretionary basis”.
By October, Emirates will have reinstated its A380 operations on more than a dozen routes from Dubai, including Heathrow, Manchester, Moscow, New York JFK, Paris, Toronto and Washington DC.
Emirates offers daily Dubai-Manchester services, increasing to a double-daily A380 service, in October.
By the end of October, the airline will offer 77 weekly flights to the UK, including the six-times-daily Heathrow operation, double-daily A380 flights to Manchester, a 10-weekly service to Birmingham, a daily service to Glasgow, and a four-weekly service to Newcastle.
Dubai is on the UK’s amber list for travel.