Big news for international jet-setters, especially those bound for the Middle East: Emirates has announced A380 service to and from Los Angeles starting on December 2 this year.
The 489-seat Emirates A380 offers 14 Private First Class Suites, 76 lie-flat beds in Business Class and 399 seats in Economy Class. Top perk: First Class passengers have access to two Onboard Shower Spas, while all premium passengers on the upper deck can socialise at the Onboard Lounge with a good range of beverages and bar snacks. Passengers in all classes of service can use inflight Wi-Fi and cell phone connectivity, and be entertained by more than 1,400 channels of films, TV programs, games and music. This aircraft replaces the Boeing 777-300 ER which has serviced the route.
The A380 service will operate daily as EK215 departing Dubai at 0820hrs (local time) and arriving at Los Angeles’ Tom Bradley International Terminal at 12:50 p.m. (local). The return flight, EK216, departs Los Angeles at 4 p.m. (local) and arrives in Dubai at 7:50 p.m. (local) the following day.
The announcement of the A380 on the airline’s longest route in terms of distance comes on the heels of last week’s announcement of A380 service added to Zurich, Switzerland. The A380 to Los Angeles compliments the double daily A380 flights already in place between Dubai and New York’s John F. Kennedy airport and becomes the 23rd A380 destination on the Emirates global route network. Emirates has an additional 57 A380s on order and receives one A380 delivery per month, on average.
Emirates currently serves six destination in the U.S. in addition to Los Angeles - San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Washington Dulles and New York JFK – and has also announced a new trans-Atlantic route from New York to Milan, Italy, which will begin on October 2 this year, providing the only First Class Service between the two cities.