Emirates to fly A380 twice a day to New York JFK

From 1st January 2013, EK203 from Dubai to JFK, and its return sector EK204, will become A380 flights, offering an increased capacity of almost 1,000 additional seats in both directions every week. The service is currently operated by a Boeing 777-300ER.

“Emirates is experiencing very high demand for its New York flights and the start of a daily A380 service to JFK will enable us to offer more choice for our customers to benefit from the Emirates A380 experience,” said Thierry Antinori, Executive Vice President of Passenger Sales Worldwide. “Given the popularity of this giant aircraft, known for its quietness, spaciousness and award-winning on-board product, we are confident that this news will be well-received by our customers travelling to 17 destinations in the Middle East, 21 African destinations including major hubs in east Africa, 20 destinations in the Far East and Australasia and 10 destinations in India.”

He added: “We have continued to invest in our services by increasing our capacity to build on the resurgent demand for air travel within the United States and we are seeing this strategy pay dividends. Further investment in our hub, with the planned opening of the world’s first dedicated A380 concourse will coincide with the second JFK A380 service.”

Analyst Saj Ahmad commented: "Emirates is leveraging the strength of its A380 fleet by growing capacity without seeking new slots and with the displacement of the 777-300ER flight to New York, the airline is looking to hone in on the lucrative premium passenger market that is still largely underserved from the US East Coast to the Middle East.
 
"With the connectivity that Emirates has now with partner JetBlue, there is plenty of traffic that needs services and it was always a matter of time before Emirates deployed another A380 to New York. In fact, it's hard to argue how the A380 could not fit on any of Emirates' US-routes unless there are weight associated restrictions due to cargo demand, for example. That said, Emirates will be looking at Washington DC as another A380-candidate airport once flights start in September this year if it sees that the planned 777-300ER flights do better than expected.
 
Of course, what'll be interesting to see is how Qatar Airways, Etihad and other US airlines respond to Emirates' move. With the aforementioned Arab carriers also due to get A380s soon, it could well be that they push the US airlines out of the market for Middle East services."