517-seater Emirates super jumbo to land in Delhi

DUBAI - Twenty-five years after it first flew to Delhi, Emirates will make history when its 517-seater Airbus A-380 super jumbo lands at the Indira Gandhi International Airport Thursday to become the first international airline to dock at the brand new Terminal 3.

The Terminal 3, inaugurated earlier this month by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,

has six of its 78 aerobridges equipped to handle the giant double-deck aircraft.

“The fact that we will bring the A-380 to Delhi is a reiteration of the potential we see in the Indian market and our intent to partner with the nation in its growth,” said Majid Al Mualla, the airline’s senior vice president for West Asia and Indian Ocean.

“Emirates has been flying to Delhi since our first day of operations in 1985. Twenty-five years on, 10 destinations and 184 weekly flights certainly represent the effort and investment that have gone into building a strong relationship with India.”

The special flight into the Indian capital is scheduled to leave at 10:10 in the morning here (local time) and touchdown at 2:40 pm (India time) in Delhi, after a nearly three-and-a-half-hour flight. It flies back at 5:50 pm.

The airline introduced a special tariff for this flight with a return fare of Rs9990, including taxes.

The 517-seat aircraft offers 14 flat-bed first class private suites with electric doors, 76 fully-flat seats in business class and 427 contoured seats in economy spread across four roomy cabins on the lower deck.

It offers its first and business class passengers private suites, shower spas and an onboard lounge with a wide range of drinks and canapés and the space to socialise or simply relax, officials said.

This apart, passengers in all classes can enjoy the in-flight entertainment, that has more than 1,000 channels of on-demand, including 200 movies from around the world, 100 television channels, some 500 audio channels and over 100 video games.

The carrier has also the largest fleet of A-380s and currently flies 11 of the aircraft that serve destinations such as London, Toronto, Bangkok, Paris, Jeddah, Seoul, Sydney and Auckland.

It also will fly to Beijing from Aug 1, to Manchester from Sep 1 and resume the services to New York from Oct 31. The airline recently inducted a brand new A-380 into its fleet, taking the total number of A-380s to 11.

It recently placed a $11.5 billion order with Airbus for an additional 32 A380s, taking the total firm order to 90 to signal the carrier’s confidence in the long-term growth of air travel.

The first time the A-380 landed at the Delhi airport was on the morning of May 6, 2007, as part of a test-cum-promotional visit for Airbus, flying in from its headquarters at Toulouse in France.

(Arvind Padmanabhan can be reached at arvind.p@ians.in)