Sheikh Mohamed and Sheikh Hamdan tour an Emirates A380 in Dubai
18 November, 2019
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Sheikh Hamdan took a private tour of an Emirates A380 on the opening day of the Dubai Airshow 2019.
A lot has changed since our first airshow in 1986 but the vision of our leaders has remained the same. To be number one
-Sheikh Hamdan
The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and the Crown Prince of Dubai were given a personal tour of the aircraft by Emirates. The duo were accompanied by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE and Minister of Presidential Affairs and Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Emirates Airline.
The superjumbo is Emirates's latest A380. It's on static display at Dubai World Central and is dressed in blue livery, representing the "mobility" theme of Expo 2020.
Seats in the first class cabin were set up in lie-flat formation with Emirates pyjamas, slippers and vanity kits on display.
The royal tour also included a visit to the shower spas and the Airbus A380's upper deck horseshoe-shaped bar.
Sheikh Hamdan posted pictures from the airshow on his Instagram, one of which shows him driving Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed around the airshow in a golf buggy. Fazza captioned the images with: "A lot has changed since our first airshow in 1986, but the vision of our leaders has remained the same. To be number one."
Emirates has both its latest Airbus A380 and a Boeing 777-300ER on display at the Dubai airshow. Both are dressed in Expo livery, with the Boeing wearing orange to represent the "opportunity" theme of Expo 2020.
A similar A380 to the one the royals toured led the way during the opening procession of the Dubai Airshow 2019. Accompanied by Chinook, Black Hawk and Apache helicopters and followed by the UAE's air display team and a military procession, the superjumbo was one of 27 aircraft that flew past the runway at Dubai World Central to open the event.