Hamburg is ready for Airbus A380: All necessary construction works at Hamburg Airport have been completed and the airport is ready to handle the largest passenger aircraft in the world. As of October 29, 2018, Emirates will be the first and only airline to deploy the A380 on scheduled services out of Hamburg. The daily rotation with the Airbus flagship replaces one of the two existing daily Boeing 777-300ER services between the Hanseatic city and the hub Dubai.
About two weeks before the first flight, Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO of Hamburg Airport, and Volker Greiner, Emirates Vice President North and Central Europe, officially presented the A380 position on Thursday. At the new handling position, the passengers of the A380 will be able to board the double-decker aircraft simultaneously via three mobile boarding bridges. In addition to the existing double boarding bridges, Hamburg airport has created a new access, so that the travelers can embark the aircraft on the upper deck directly from the terminal via the third bridge. The airport’s investment costs for this additional part of the A380 boarding bridge amount to around 750,000 Euro.
The Emirates A380 between Hamburg and Dubai offers a total of 516 seats – including 14 First Class Private Suites, 76 fully flatbed seats in Business Class on the upper deck and 426 seats in the spacious Economy Class on the main deck. For the festivities in Hamburg on the occasion of the start of the A380 connection, the A380 will be used once on the morning rotation EK059/EK060 on October 29, 2018. As of 30 October 2018, the Emirates A380 will operate in the afternoon under as EK061 /EK062. With a fleet of currently 105 aircraft, the airline is by far the largest A380 operator in the world. All Emirates A380s are being fitted at Airbus in Hamburg including significant cabin interior work and final livery and will be delivered from Germany.
“We are excited to bring our Airbus flagship ‘home’ in just a couple of days. The Emirates A380 is an iconic aircraft that continues to excite our customers and set the benchmark for travel comfort in commercial flying. We look forward to meet the growing traveler’s demand and offer the award-winning Emirates A380 experience to our customers flying from Hamburg,” said Volker Greiner, Emirates Vice President North and Central Europe.
Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO of Hamburg Airport: “In order to board an Airbus A380 comfortably and quickly, the third passenger bridge is a prerequisite. Therefore, the entire airport team has worked hard to implement this upper deck connection as quickly as possible – which we have achieved at a record time. In addition, the airport is still working on some structural adjustments to expand the waiting area at the gate and install passport counters for departing passengers.”
