Emirates begins shortest Airbus A380 flight from Dubai to Muscat
01 July, 2019
Emirates has started the world's shortest A380 route from Dubai to Muscat – and has released a number of fascinating facts to mark the occasion.
The twice-daily flight from the UAE to the Omani capital spends less than an hour in the air as it makes its way across the 340 kilometres separating the two cities.
Emirates revealed the following nuggets of information relating to the flight:
• The wiring on an Airbus A380 (500km) is longer than the distance between Dubai and Muscat (340km)
• The average flight time (40 minutes) between Dubai and Muscat is only five minutes more than the time taken to clean an Airbus A380 by a team of 42 people
• More than 25,000 items of catering are loaded on to the A380 flying from Dubai to Muscat
• You have to fly 3,000 times between Dubai and Muscat to watch the complete ice film catalogue
• Emirates has flown more than 4.7 million customers between Dubai and Muscat since 1993. That’s the capacity of nearly 9,000 Emirates Airbus A380s
• More than 128 million customers have flown on Emirates' Airbus A380 since 2008. That’s nine times more than the populations of Oman and UAE combined
The aircraft is configured with 429 economy seats on the lower deck. Upstairs, there are 76 business class flatbed seats and 14 first class private suites, meaning more than 2,000 passengers will be able to fly the route each day.
Passengers on Emirates flight EK862 will leave Dubai at 8.25am, landing in Muscat by 9.40am. The return flight will depart Oman at 11.15am and land in the UAE at 12.25pm.
A second daily flight will depart Dubai at 4.10pm and land in Muscat by 5.25pm. The return leg leaves Muscat at 7.05pm, and lands in Dubai by 8.15pm.
The twice-daily schedule runs until around late October, when the winter timetable commences.
Emirates' longest A380 flight is to Auckland in New Zealand, which takes 17 hours and 5 minutes.
The A380 will remain a "pillar" of Emirates' fleet until the 2030s", Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of the airline, said earlier this year, at the time it was confirmed Airbus was to scrap production of the superjumbo.
Emirates also confirmed last month that it is in talks with Boeing over renegotiating its order for 150 of the new 777X model due for launch next year.
The Dubai carrier has, however, been adding A380 services recently, with flights added to Amman in Jordan, and Boston in the US.