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Emirates Superjumbos Aim For Down Under

November 7, 2008 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

With the Aussie version of the A380 now flying Australia to US routes, the big guns in A380s, Emirates, are throwing their jumbo-sized hat into the same ring.

Yep, more flights heading Down Under are likely to be flown in the A380, if the Emirates plan pans out. The first route would be a Dubai-Sydney-Auckland flight, with Dubai to Melbourne routes planned for later on in 2009.

We’re not complaining about (hopefully) a bit more comfort on these long-haul routes. But since we found out that one A380 is just like another the excitement’s definitely died down a bit. In fact we’re probably ready for a new generation plane right about now.

Related Stories:
· Emirates Push for Aussie A380 Routes [The Australian]
· Qantas A380 Takes Off, Flies Just Like the Other Ones [Jaunted]
· A380 coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ammar Abd Rabbo]

Interactive Advertising Travel: Emirates Wants You to Star in Their Movie

October 11, 2008 at 10:35 AM | 0 Comments

Emirates, the Dubai-based luxury airline with onboard shower spas and private first-class suites that are bigger than our apartment, has rolled out an ambitious interactive marketing campaign to promote the launch of its new Dubai-to-Los Angeles service. In honor of the Middle East's newest bridge to Tinseltown, the airline is making a short film, and it wants you to star in it. Entitled The Exposure of Tom King, it's a comedic thriller that - surprise surprise - plays on the theme of celebrity, with appearances by an actor consumed with vanity, a shameless paparazzo, a conniving blackmailer, and her bumbling boyfriend. The twist here is that the film has already been shot, only without actors.

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My A380's Better Than Yours

September 22, 2008 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

With Qantas finally taking delivery of its first, long-awaited A380 yesterday, the battle of business class in the super-jumbos is really starting to heat up.

Over the weekend, a totally biased review from an Australian journalist who got a free seat on the A380's maiden flight into Sydney claimed that Qantas's layout in business class is the best because it "provides ... the biggest sense of space."

If space is not everything, then the other airlines already flying the A380 might actually be the winners. Emirates has a business cabin layout that gives everyone privacy plus a personal minibar. And Singapore Airlines has the world's widest seat, plus double beds, though you're not allowed to get up to any fun in them.

Related Stories:
· Which Airline Has the Best A380? [The Australian]
· A380 Planes: Flying Kangaroo is Next in Line [Jaunted]
· No Sex, Please: We're on Singapore Airlines [Jaunted]

[Photo: NguyenDai]

Superjumbo Travel: Emirates Grounds Its A380

September 10, 2008 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

Is all not rosy on board the much-anticipated A380 with showers, of Emirates Airlines fame? After just a few weeks, Emirates stopped flying its A380 due to an electrical fault this week.

The carrier is hoping to start flying the superjumbo again by the end of the week, but even then the airline is cutting its use on the Dubai to New York route from three times to twice a week so that they'll be more time for training flights and engineering work.

Either that, or the bathrooms at Emirates HQ have hit a snag and they need the plane there more often so that staff can take showers.

Related Stories:
· Emirates Stops Flights of Its First Airbus A380 [Telegraph]
· Emirates and the In-Flight Shower [Jaunted]

[Photo: Telstar]

In-Flight Shower Travel: Inside Emirates' Airborne Spa

August 8, 2008 at 1:33 PM | 0 Comments

Cranky Flier Brett Snyder got a sneak peak at Emirates' new A380 recently, and this quick video explores the one thing everyone is wondering about: How's the shower?!

It doesn't look too big, but you know it'll be nice and clean: The airline plans to have two dedicated "shower attendants" on every flight to clean up after every use and restock the towels and amenities.

We're willing to look past how absolutely ridiculous that is simply because it's a shower. With heated floors. On a plane.

Related Stories:
· Flying the Emirates A380 in Business and First [Cranky Flier]
· Emirates and the In-Flight Shower [Jaunted]

This Week at Emirates: Whither The In-Flight Magazine?

August 8, 2008 at 9:00 AM | 0 Comments

We've never been huge fans of in-flight magazines but they do tend to while away a good half an hour or so, or even more on long flights when we're fighting boredom. But flavor-of-the-month Emirates, in their eternal wisdom, has now decided to ditch its in-flight magazine completely.

Apparently this will save them one ton of weight per flight--we get it, lower fuel consumption and less emissions--so they're crowing about both cost and environment savings. Environment? This from the airline which thinks an in-flight shower is a necessity for some passengers?

Problem number two: What will passengers do instead of reading the in-flight mag? Stare at the screen in front of them even after watching all the movies? Hopefully not chat on their cell phones for an extra half hour.

Related Stories:
· Emirates Ditch Their In-Flight Magazine [Travel Rants]
· In-Flight Cell Phones: Vibrate Only on Emirates, Please [Jaunted]
· Emirates and the In-Flight Shower [Jaunted]

[Photo: TelstarLogistics]

In-Flight Cell Phones: Vibrate Only on Emirates, Please

August 6, 2008 at 11:45 AM | 0 Comments

While carriers in the United States are still working to get in-flight WiFi installed, in the Middle East it's all about cell phones. Emirates is leading the way with plans to add in-flight service on its entire fleet of more than 100 planes.

Does that mean someone will be yakking all the way from London to Dubai on your next flight? Not necessarily, a spokesman says, citing trial flights earlier this year:

A certain on-board etiquette has developed, where passengers try to stay quiet to avoid being seen as intrusive. A pre-flight video is shown on aircraft that use the technology, urging passengers to keep their phones on silent or vibrate mode.

Per minute charges of about $4 will also help keep calls short. But not all passengers are buying the idea that cell phone users will be the most polite people on the plane. Says one internet commenter:

Perhaps they need an area for these people who need to be contacted even though they can't do anything in mid-air. Could I suggest on the wing?

Related Stories:
· Emirates Presses Ahead with In-Flight Mobiles [Telegraph]
· Ryanair to Begin Tests of In-Flight Mobiles [Telegraph]
· In-Flight Cell Phones: Not Great for So Many Reasons [Jaunted]

[Photo: pouwerkerk]

Emirates and the In-Flight Shower

July 24, 2008 at 9:25 AM | 0 Comments

We've been waiting for this since the start of the year and now it's just a week away: Emirates is really, truly about to fly planes with showers.

We hate that grimy flying feeling but unless our fairy godmother throws us a first-class ticket for a flight on the new Emirates A380, we'll have to deal with it. The 14 passengers in first class will have access to two showers between them, and everybody else just has to be jealous.

Emirates is keeping most of the shower details hushed up until the official launch next week. So we don't yet know, as Business Traveller pointed out,

How cabin staff will extricate a passenger mid-shower if turbulence occurs.

Is tossing life jacket over them quite sufficient?

Related Stories:
· Showers in the Sky [Business Traveller]
· Emiratse Planes Will Shower You [Jaunted]
· Emirates Coverage [Jaunted]

Adventures of Link: A380 Coming Stateside

June 9, 2008 at 6:05 PM | 0 Comments

The A380 is finally coming to America! Emirates will run flights between New York and Dubai, starting August 1.

The massive aircraft won't be making all the runs between the two cities, but it will be the first time the A380 flies into the US in commercial service. Elsewhere, you can ride it between Singapore and both Sydney and London on Singapore Airlines.

Related Stories:
· If You Want to See a Really Big Airplane [Airline Biz Blog]
· Emirates to Launch First Service to US with A380 [AFP, via Google]
· Dreamliner to Fly by End of 2008 [BBC]
· Coming Soon: A380 Kangaroos [Jaunted]
· A380 coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: The Cranky Flier]

And Now For an Airline That's Not Going Bankrupt

May 1, 2008 at 9:15 AM | 0 Comments

Airlines are failing around the world. From Hong Kong to the United States and as far off as South Africa, rising fuel costs and a glut of other excuses are sending airlines to the wall. But there's always gotta be someone who plays by different rules and that seems to be Emirates: they've just announced that their profit rose by 62 percent in the last year!

So how come Emirates is raking in the cash while everybody else is going broke? They just keep increasing their capacity for both passengers and cargo, and they're filling it up, too. That got them to a $1.36 billion profit for 2007.

Emirates is planning to keep getting bigger and bigger, with a total of 58 A380s on order. They're also thinking of selling off between 20 and 30 percent of the government-owned business to the public. If you're nervous about booking other airlines, Emirates seems like the one that's still going to be flying when your departure date actually comes 'round.

Related Stories:
· Emirates Air Year Profit Soars [Guardian]
· Airline Bankruptcy coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: mr_nhw]

New Low Cost Carrier Heading for Dubai

March 24, 2008 at 11:30 AM | 0 Comments

Even though the Middle East already has five low cost carriers in operation, the UAE has decided that it needs another one. In a slightly complicated-sounding business arrangement, Emirates is going to help the government set up a Dubai-based budget airline--which doesn't yet have a name--and one of Emirates' current VPs will then resign from Emirates to run the new, independent-from-Emirates airline.

The new airline will use some single-aisle aircraft (currently rare in the Gulf) and will fly to various destinations less than five hours away from Dubai. Exactly how low cost it'll be is also a bit unclear. All they've said is that "services should be priced on the living and economic conditions to suit their income."

It's all supposed to be up and running within the next year, so watch this space for more info. We're curious about a name: Dub-Air, perhaps, although that makes it sound like a Dubious Airline. We're guessing they'll choose something else.

Related Stories:
· Dubai Government to Launch Budget Airline [Gulf News]
· Emirates coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: woody1778a]

In-Flight WiFi: Going International

February 7, 2008 at 9:49 AM | 2 Comments

With all the excitement over on-board WiFi announcements here in the United States, it's easy to forget that carriers abroad have already wrapped up their testing of in-flight Internet. More than a couple airlines have had passengers successfully texting their sucker friends "Guess where I am right now?!" Among them are Qantas, Ryanair, Air France, Singapore Airlines and Emirates.

These carriers are using a satellite technology developed by a company called EMS Technologies. Because the system is space- rather than land-based, passengers can use cell phones, PDAs and laptops over the ocean. That's a major plus for carriers like Qantas and Singapore.

While pricing is still, ahem, up in the air, we can't imagine it will be that much. And for a lot of people, EMS's CEO realizes, the cost won't really even be a factor:

If I'm flying from Paris to New York and Air France lets me use my Blackberry in-flight while United Airlines doesn't, which one do you think I'm going to choose?

Related Stories:
· International Carriers Pressure US Rivals [American-Statesman]
· In-Flight WiFi coverage [Jaunted]