Emirates flies A380 to Amsterdam

Emirates' A380 got the traditional water cannon welcome on arrival at Schiphol

Emirates has become the first airline to fly the Airbus A380 to Amsterdam.

The new service, which launched yesterday (Wednesday 1 August) will now operate daily to the city’s Schiphol International Airport, which becomes the 19th destination served by Emirates’ double-decker jet.

“After progressively building up services to the Netherlands over a course of two years, Emirates is responding to strong demand by… adding much-needed seat capacity – more than 2,000 seats a week,” said Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ executive vice president of passenger sales. “The A380 is central to the Emirates strategy. Our orders represent a sizable chunk of the total programme worldwide and Emirates has played a key role in the design and performance characteristics of the aircraft, which have become our signature markers in the industry,” he added.

Amsterdam will be served by the 517-seat version of Emirates’ A380, which offers 14 seats in first class, 76 in business class and 427 in economy.

The Dubai-based carrier’s 22 A380s now serve Amsterdam, Auckland, Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, London Heathrow, Manchester, Munich, New York JFK, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Toronto and Tokyo, with Melbourne flights set to launch on 1 October and Moscow on 1 December.

By Mark Elliott, 2 August 2012, Thursday 7:19 AM