The Dutch government has now granted permission to operate an additional A380 flight at Amsterdam Schiphol, according to reports.
Emirates already operates a twice daily service (the other flight is currently flown by B777-300ER) from the Dutch airport so it means it will be able to both offer a more attractive product for both flights and provide more seats to passengers.
As we have previously reported (see news November 19), the news that Emirates wished to operate a twice daily A380 service at Schiphol did not go down well with both national airline KLM and the Dutch pilots’ union VNV.
But really the opportunities for the Dutch government to intervene and restrict Emirates are limited. Holland favours “open skies” and its aviation treaty with the UAE is a liberal one.
According to Dutch financial newspaper fd.nl, Sharon Dijksma, the State Secretary for Intfrastructure and the Environment emphasises that “Only if it is shown that the companies [airlines] from the UAE do not comply with the provisions of the aviation agreement can we stop the second daily service of the A380.”
The Dutch ruling will allow the carrier to start its second daily A380 service from February 1, 2016.
Business Traveller
Emirates expands with two new cities in PRC
Emirates will start flying to two new cities in China as the Dubai carrier taps rising demand for travel in the world’s most populous country.
From May next year, Emirates will start flying four times a week to Yinchuan and Zhengzhou. The airline already flies to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou on the mainland.
Yinchuan, the capital of Ning xia, is west of the Yellow River and east of Helan Mountain. The city, which has a large Muslim population, is a connecting point for trade and cultural exchange between China and the Middle East.
Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, is an educational, technological and economic hub.
Emirates will operate Boeing 777-200LRs to the destinations. The aircraft has a three-class configuration with 266 seats and 14 tonnes of cargo capacity.
Popular commodities are expected to be transported from these cities, including electronics such as mobile phones from Zhengzhou and agricultural goods including goji berries and cashmere from Yinchuan, said Emirates.
“As China’s regions continue to open up to the global economy, Emirates remains keen to support this with the further expansion of air services in mainland China,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the airline group’s chairman and chief executive.
“In particular we’re interested in exploring the opportunity of daily services to Hangzhou and Chongqing, and a second daily service to Guangzhou,” he said.
Trade between Dubai and China has been increasing. There are 3,000 Chinese companies and banks in Dubai, and the number is growing. While the emirate has about 200,000 Chinese residents, Chinese visitors to Dubai rose by 25 per cent between 2013 and last year.
The National
Sea-Tac can’t handle the A380 Emirates wants to send
As Emirates airlines grows its volume of passengers through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, bringing in a mammoth Airbus A380 would be the logical next step.
Except Sea-Tac can’t fit the 262-foot wingspan of the twin-deck A380 and still maintain regular operations.
The issue is FAA rules that dictate required separation between aircraft, said Sea-Tac spokesman Perry Cooper. While the airport can handle the 225-foot wingspan of Boeing (NYSE: BA) 747-8 jets, the extra 37 feet of an A380 puts that jet in another category.
“At this point we don’t have anything in master planning to accommodate that, because of separation rules,” Cooper said.
While the high-volume airport technically could manage an emergency A380 landing, and even has provided for that possibility, the configuration wouldn’t work for regular service.
“If they were to land on the nearest runway,” he said, “the taxiway next it would be to be shut off, and nobody would be able to operate until that aircraft would go through.”
That’s too bad, because Emirates Vice President of U.S. Sales Matthias Schmid said in an interview this week that as the Dubai-based airline grows in Seattle, graduating to an A380 on one of the twice-daily flights might be the logical next step.
“It is no secret,” he said. “Our president Tim Clark already has mentioned one day looking at full A380 operations to all of our U.S. gateways.”
Emirates now flies the 550-passenger A380 into five U.S. gateways – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston and New York – and hopes to add Chicago and Boston.
The A380 is one of the two mainstays of the Emirates fleet. The Boeing 777 is the other, and Emirates balances which jet it uses with where demand is greatest.
Currently Emirates operates a 290-passenger 777-200ER and a 364-passenger 777-300ER jet for the two daily flights between Sea-Tac and Dubai, the second of which started in July. After it upgrades the 200ER, a A380 would be the next way to grow.
Additional growth also would benefit SeaTac-based Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK), which supplies connecting flights for about a third of each Emirates flight.
While Sea-Tac would be happy to welcome A380s, there’s no way to grow at the current Sea-Tac site to accommodate them, Cooper said.
The 1,500-acre airport is one of the most high-density in the United States, and the positioning of the three runways, and the taxiways, are dictated by the narrow site.
“We’d love to if we had more space for the airfield,” Cooper said. “But we have to be considerate of the three cities we’re around, and we’re not looking to expand beyond three-runway configuration.”
Puget Sound Business Journal