EMIRATES UPGRADES WASHINGTON DC FLIGHT TO THE AIRBUS A380
(Posted 02nd February 2016)
Travelers from Emirates’ three East Africa destinations, Entebbe, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, destined for Washington DC, can now travel to the US capital on the world’s largest passenger jet, the Airbus A380.
The airline affected the switch from the smaller Boeing B777-300ER as a result of a sharp rise in demand for seats on their flight after United Airlines, one of America’s big bad three had given notice they would withdraw from the Washington Dubai route by end January.
The big bad three American legacy carrier United, Delta and American have been engaged in a war of words and outright trench warfare with the Gulf airlines, which they accused of receiving subsidies, accusations strenuously denied by Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways. In particular in the case of American, a founder member of the oneworld alliance, has the difference of opinion and their rabid opposition to Gulf airlines created a growing rift with partner Qatar Airways over both tone and content of American’s allegation made in presentations to the US government and congress. While the US carriers cited sagging demand when announcing, in the case of United the halt of Washington Dubai flights and in the case of Delta flights from Atlanta to Dubai later this month, does the increase in destinations from the Gulf to the US and the use of larger aircraft signal a different message of what is really happening on the ground and in the air.
In fact will Emirates later this year add a second Airbus A380 on their route to Los Angeles, again showing that demand exists for quality airline operations but less so for those which are complacent and fly aged aircraft with inferior inflight services compared to the Gulf carriers.
Emirates confirmed that on the first flight of the A380 to Washington over 20 different nationalities were on board, including a number of travelers from Africa who had connected in Dubai and were surprised by flying on this super jumbo on their final leg to America.
