Industry

Effective October 1st, Emirates will fly to Istanbul with Airbus A380

Emirates will introduce the first scheduled commercial Airbus A380 service to Istanbul from 1 October. Flight EK123 will depart Dubai at 10:45 and arrive in Istanbul at 14:25. The return flight EK124 will depart Istanbul at 16:25 and arrive in Dubai at 21:50 (all times are local).

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Deploying its three-class A380, Emirates will offer a total of 517 seats, with 14 private suites in First Class, 76 mini pods with lie-flat seats in Business Class and 427 seats in Economy, increasing capacity per flight by more than 150 passengers compared to the current Boeing 777-300ER. Emirates will receive 3 more A380s from Airbus this year, with its last unit on order scheduled to join its fleet in November, bringing forward the original delivery timeline from June 2022. These deliveries will bring Emirates’ total fleet of A380s to 118 units in November, including 6 equipped with Premium Economy seats in a 4-class configuration.

“We are excited to finally bring our flagship to Istanbul to join many other top cities we currently serve with the A380. Since Emirates started operating to Turkey 34 years ago, we have carried six million customers on more than 23,000 flights. Bringing the A380 service to Turkey is a major milestone for Emirates and we would like to thank all our partners and stakeholders for their support in making this a reality,” said Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer.

“Since we moved to our new home at Istanbul Airport on 6 April 2019, Emirates’ A380 entry is another milestone for us. I am proud that the world’s largest A380 operator, Emirates, will operate the Dubai-Istanbul route with their flagship, making it the first ever A380 operation at Istanbul Airport and Turkey. This increase will help to boost traffic between our two nations. In the post-Covid-19 era, through Emirates’ extensive network, it will bring more inbound tourism to Istanbul and Turkey from currently unserved or underserved destinations. We are looking forward to further developing our good relations with Emirates and would like to welcome the Emirates A380 to Istanbul Airport,” said Majid Khan, Vice President Aviation Development of iGA Istanbul Airport.