Emirates will operate the world’s shortest scheduled A380 flight, when it upgrades one of its nine daily services between Dubai and Doha.
The Gulf carrier will roster the superjumbo on the 379km route from December 1.
The flight departs Dubai at 0745, arriving into Doha at 0805, with the return leg leaving Doha at 0950 and landing back into Dubai at 1200.
The route is the most served on Emirates’ network, and the carrier said that demand is “steadily increasing”, with over 700,000 passengers carried since January this year.
The airline also said “the increase in capacity between Dubai and Doha will help to grow trade inroads between the UAE and Qatar”, with the UAE currently Qatar’s fifth largest trading partner with bilateral trade volumes of over US$7 billion in 2015.
Emirates said that transferring travellers from Doha will be avail of “seamless connections of under four hours to some of the most popular onwards destinations serviced by the A380 including New York, London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Manchester, Dusseldorf, Milan, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam”.
The A380 operating the route will be configured with 429 economy seats, 76 full-flat business class seats and 14 first class suites.
Doha will be Emirates’ 45th A380 destination, with the carrier currently operating a total of 85 superjumbos, and another 57 on order.