KUALA LUMPUR: The Emirates Group's airline subsidiary Emirates will resume its Airbus A380 service from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur from July 1 this year.
Emirates deputy president and chief operations officer Adel Al Redha said the airline plans to replace more Boeing B777-300ER (extended range) aircraft servicing its Kuala Lumpur route with the superjumbo jet.
"Malaysia is a good destination. It's a very promising market and there is good demand. We have three flights a day to Kuala Lumpur. From the first of July, we will deploy the A380s there.
"It's a very promising, high demand destination and in the future, we are looking to replace more B777 aircraft with the A380," Al Redha told Business Times in an exclusive interview during the International Air Transport Association (IATA) 80th annual general meeting and World Air Transport Summit 2024.
The upcoming resumption of the A380 service to Kuala Lumpur, starting with flights EK42 and EK43 comes after a three-month break.
Emirates, the world's largest A380 aircraft operator, had previously flown the superjumbo aircraft to Kuala Lumpur three times a day before the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Aug 22, the Dubai-based airline told Business Times that the A380 service will be introduced on Dec 1 to meet the increasing demand to and from Malaysia as well as carry more passengers on its flights.
Currently, Emirates has over 90 A380s flying globally. In 2022, the carrier announced a US$2 billion retrofit programme for its existing fleet of A380s and B777-300ERs.
In May this year, the airline said it would refurbish 110 of its A380 aircraft and 81 B777s.
So far, 22 A380s have been retrofitted and starting in July, Emirates will begin refurbishing its first B777 aircraft.
The retrofit program for its Boeing airplanes will include the refurbishment of the First-Class cabin, new Business Class seats in an updated 1-2-1 seating configuration as well as the introduction of the Premium Economy cabin.
Al Redha said eventually Kuala Lumpur and many other destinations that Emirates fly to would be served with its Premium Economy cabin following the completion of the airline's aircraft retrofit programme.
"The Premium Economy is part of Emirates product. As we retrofit more aircraft, more destinations will be served with the Premium Economy service. Whether it's the B777, A380 or A350 – all of these aircraft will have Premium Economy," he added.
Emirates introduced the Premium Economy cabin in 2022 offering a service in between Economy and Business without airfares costing as much as Business Class.
Currently, the airlines offer the Premium Economy service on several routes including London, Sydney, Melbourne, Christchurch, Auckland, Singapore, Los Angeles, New York, Houston, San Francisco, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Tokyo Narita, Sao Paulo, Dubai and Osaka.