Emirates currently boasts the world’s shortest superjumbo A380 flight between Dubai-Muscat
On July 1st, 2019, Emirates began the world’s shortest A380 flight between Dubai and Oman’s capital, Muscat. The airline said the flights would provide a smooth “all A380” journey for long-distance passengers travelling to and from Muscat through Dubai. Emirates has been operating flights to Oman since 1993. However, all three of its daily flights from Dubai to Muscat are operated by Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
According to Sheikh Majid Al Mualla, divisional senior vice president of Emirates’ Commercial Operations Centre, “The introduction of the A380 services to Muscat means more of our customers will have the opportunity to experience our industry-leading products onboard, and will also enhance choice and travel preferences as they plan their journeys,”
“Oman is an important destination for Emirates, and we will continue to look at ways to grow our operations in the market to best serve our customers,” he said.
The morning flight, EK 862, will take off from Dubai at 8:25 AM and land in Muscat at 9:40 AM. EK 863, the return flight, will leave Muscat at 11:15 a.m. and land in Dubai at 12:25 p.m.
EK 864 would leave Dubai later that day at 4:10 p.m. and arrive in Muscat at 5:25 p.m. At 7:05 PM, EK 865 will depart from Muscat and land in Dubai at 8:15 PM.
“The average flight time (40 minutes) between Dubai and Muscat is only five minutes more than the time taken to clean an Airbus A380 by a team of 42 people,” the airline said on its Twitter account.
Emirates tweeted on its Twitter account, Interestingly, the distance between Dubai and Muscat is only 340 kilometres, which is less than the 500-kilometre wiring on an Airbus A380.
The new flights of Emirates beat their own previous record. It used to provide the world’s shortest scheduled A380 service between Dubai and Doha. However, due to an ongoing diplomatic dispute between Qatar and the UAE, all flights to Doha were cancelled in 2017.