Emirates returned to serving Glasgow with a daily Airbus A380 service to Dubai on Sunday for the first time in three and a half years.
Gulf carrier Emirates resumed operations from Glasgow well over a year ago but with a daily Boeing 777 operation. The return of its flagship A380 adds an additional 163 seats a day each way – increasing capacity by 46%.
Emirates divisional vice-president in the UK Richard Jewsbury said the A380’s return would “provide much-need capacity” on the Glasgow-Dubai route, saying: “This is a testament to our ongoing commitment to Scotland.”
More: A380 to return to Glasgow to operate daily Dubai service [Jan 23]
Emirates to run 119 UK-Dubai flights a week this summer [March 23]
The service will be year-round after the carrier switched its A380 service away from Glasgow at the end of September 2019, although it operated twice a day from the airport before the pandemic.
Jewsbury said the Glasgow service offers good connection with 84 of Emirates’ 140-plus destinations from Dubai and told Travel Weekly: “The majority of connections are within two hours.”
He said: “It’s great to bring back this iconic aircraft, great to be supporting the local community and great to have a positive story after all the drama of the last three years.
“We’re working hard to get aircraft back into service as we ramp back up post-Covid. Eighty of our 116 A380s are now back in service.”
Emirates has flown from Glasgow since 2004 and Jewsbury said: “We have a really good partnership [with the airport]. We’ve seen steady growth on leisure, business travel and cargo.”
But he added: “We couldn’t do it without the travel trade. We appreciate the engagement of the industry, especially [the Scottish agents’ association] the SPAA and the local community.”
Glasgow airport operations director Ronald Leitch hailed the Glasgow-Dubai service as “a tremendous success story for Scotland” and said: “The return of the airline’s flagship aircraft is a huge vote of confidence for Glasgow and the wider region.”
Leitch argued: “As well as delivering unrivalled connectivity for Scottish travellers to Dubai, the daily service plays a crucial role in exporting Scottish goods globally [and] supporting Scotland’s inbound tourism industry.”
Emirates is also due to resume A380 operations from Birmingham from July 1 and will reintroduce a second daily A380 service from Stansted from May 1.
The carrier is undertaking a $2-billion retrofit of the fleet, installing new cabins including a premium economy section which has already gone into service from Heathrow.
Jewsbury said premium economy should be available on the Glasgow service sometime next year.
More: A380 to return to Glasgow to operate daily Dubai service [Jan 23]
Emirates to run 119 UK-Dubai flights a week this summer [March 23]