Business

First A380 Service to U.S. Arrives on Time

posted: 04 August 2008 05:23 pm ET

: Emirates' first A380 touches down at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Aug. 1, 2008, to ocmplete the airline's first commercial service with the type. The aircraft arrived from Dubai after a flight of some 13 hours 45 minutes. Credit: Christian Kjelgaard
: After arriving at New York JFK from Dubai on the first commercial flight of an Airbus A380 to the United States, Emirates' first A380 is given the traditional water-cannon salute by a fire tender belonging to the airport's fire service. Credit: Christian Kjelgaard
: Airport workers at New York JFK swarm around to watch the arrival of Emirates' first Airbus A380 at the gate as it completes the first commercial flight of an A380 to the United States. Credit: Christian Kjelgaard
: Each long-haul-configured Airbus A380 in the Emirates fleet will have a semi-circular bar and lounge area at the rear of the upper deck to serve first-class and business-class passengers. The entire upper decks of each aircraft will be given over to premium-class passengers, the lower deck containing 399 economy-class seats. Credit: Emirates Airline

NEW YORK JFK — After possibly the longest maiden commercial flight in history, Emirates Airline's first Airbus A380 touched down at New York John F. Kennedy International Airport at 4:34 p.m. local time on Aug. 1 to complete the first A380 service to the United States.

Carrying 489 passengers (among them Emirates Airline president Tim Clark and several other senior Emirates executives), two infants and 24 crewmembers, the A380 touched down some 11 minutes earlier than scheduled on JFK's Runway 22 Left. After exiting the runway, the A380 taxied through the traditional water-cannon salute from an airport fire tender to celebrate the first service of a new aircraft type, and docked at JFK's Terminal 4.

The A380's 13-hour 43-minute first commercial flight from Dubai and arrival at JFK were noteworthy for a variety of reasons, not least of which was the fact that it operated the service just four days after Emirates took delivery of the aircraft on July 28.

Showers on board

Also noteworthy is that flight EK 3801 — note the symbolism of the flight number — was the first airline commercial service by an aircraft on which passengers can take showers, according to Emirates. The airline is fitting all of its long-haul A380s with two stand-up showers for first-class passengers, one on each side at the forward end of the aircraft's upper deck in an area that Clark said Emirates didn’t want to use for passenger seats.

Each shower is contained in a full-size bathroom with washbasin and each activation of either shower is timed to provide up to 5 minutes of water. Each A380 will carry up to 500 kilograms of extra water for the first-class shower service, said Clark. On a flight as long as the Dubai-New York nonstop, this will require the A380 uplifting "no more than 200 kilograms" of fuel specifically for the extra water, said Captain Abbas Shaban, Emirates' A380 fleet captain and pilot in command of the first service to JFK.

Another reason the flight was so noteworthy is that the A380 was the first aircraft to use a brand-new airbridge that is positioned to lead directly from Emirates' huge premium-class lounge overlooking the Terminal 4 ramp to A380 upper-deck doors. In long-haul configuration, all A380s in Emirates' fleet will accommodate only first-class and business-class passengers on their upper decks — 14 of the former and 76 of the latter, along with the shower cabins and a spacious, semi-circular bar and lounge area at the rear end of the upper-deck cabin. (The lounge area was extremely popular with invited guests on the delivery flight of the first A380 to Dubai on July 29, said Clark.)

The premium-class jetway cost $6.3 million to construct and was built at Emirates' own cost, said Dale Griffith, senior vice president of Emirates Airport Services. It is the first such airbridge at any Emirates station, though the airline is constructing similar arrangements at its existing Dubai International Airport hub and at its forthcoming new home at Al Maktoum International Airport near Jebel Ali, Dubai.

Longest first commercial flight?

Also of note is that Emirates' first commercial service with the brand-new aircraft, operated only four days after the airline took delivery of its first A380 at Airbus' completion center at Hamburg, was, in all likelihood, an airline's longest maiden commercial flight ever with a new fleet type.

Typically, airlines operate new models on short-to-medium haul routes for a few weeks to let flight attendants and maintenance staff familiarize themselves with the aircraft and keep it relatively close to the airline's main base in case unexpected maintenance problems arise.

Even more remarkably, Emirates' long-haul first commercial A380 service also was the first commercial flight ever of the new GP7200 turbofan engine, developed specifically for the A380 by the General Electric-Pratt & Whitney Engine Alliance. It is very rare, and probably unheard of, for an airline to operate a flight of nearly 14-hours as the first commercial service for a brand-new aircraft-engine combination.

However, Emirates was confident in making its first-flight decision because of the very high reliability that the A380 has shown since first entering service with Singapore Airlines on Oct. 25, 2007 (albeit with Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines rather than Engine Alliance GP7200 engines), said Shaban.

Emirates' main reason for scheduling such an ambitious first commercial flight was that it "wanted to be the first" to serve the United States with the A380, said Shaban. The A380 fleet captain, a native of Dubai, also commanded the delivery flight of Emirates' first A380 and said that both the delivery flight and the Aug. 1 first service to the U.S. had required him to make practically no notifications in the maintenance log.

Touted by Airbus and the airlines that fly the A380 as the environmentally friendliest commercial jet to date in terms of fuel burn per passenger (effectively it burns a gallon of fuel to carry one passenger about 85 miles), the A380 is also one of the quietest for interior noise. It is so quiet on the upper deck that passengers have to look outside every now and again to make sure the aircraft is still flying, Griffith quipped.

Even though Emirates is already by far the largest customer for the A380, with 58 on order, Clark said at the press conference immediately following the arrival of the first service at JFK that the airline would probably need many more to fill its future requirements, if the growth of Dubai as a business and leisure destination is to proceed as planned. Emirates is taking all 58 of its already-ordered A380s within the next five years.