[QUOTE=CaptainEKAirbus;37536771]I noted a fairly substantial capacity downgrade coming to LGW for the period of Oct 1 through Nov 30:
EK009/010 LGW downgraded from a 2-class 380 to a 2-class 77W
EK015/016 LGW downgraded from a 3-class 380 to a 3-class 77W

Effectively with EK011/012 LGW operating as a 2-class 77W and EK069/070 operating as a 359, there will be about 351 daily seats lost during this period compared to the prior month.

With this update being over 6 months out, it wouldn't surprise me to see further revisions to this plan.



Hopefully so as this covers the UK half-term period when a large number of families travel to DXB. Rather shortsighted I feel.

[QUOTE=JudeS;37537164]Seems a very poor decision to take at a time when travel demand to Dubai and beyond is high. Unless there expecting a shortage of A380’s for whatever reason there, I also wouldn’t be surprised if this decision is reversed.

!My daughter and her family (husband three children and his aged parents) had booked EK10 in economy on 21st October and had also paid for upper deck seats x 5 for both flights - his parents are in J. The parents are extremely unhappy to find that they are now seated in a 2/3/2/ business cabin and 13 year old grandchild is not even anywhere near the rest of his family. My daughter has spoken to EK about a refund for the extra price paid for the preferred upper deck seats and was told that they cannot refund until after they have taken the flight in 10 months from now! I wonder if this might indicate that there will be a further change of equipment?

No, it's the standard operating procedure, but given the comments above I would tell them not to stress too much about it yet.

FWIW, Purser on today’s EK flight said he heard that DEN service will begin later this year (he mentioned August) with either A350 or 77W equipment. He was excited because his brother lives in Denver area.

The short-term nature of this downgrade and reinstatement to 3 daily A380s in December, has me wondering whether there might be some operational constraint of operating the A380 to Gatwick during October and November.

In other updates:
EK143/144 MAD upgraded to the 4-class 380 on Jun 1 (MAD will be double daily A380s)

My only thoughts are that there’s a ramp up in the refurbishment/PE retrofit programme for the A380’s planned around then. They may also be expecting a few A380’s to be down for D checks too. I can’t see any other reason why Emirates would want to downgrade those LGW flights?

I thought that CaptainEKAirbus might be referring to operational issues at LGW itself. Like gate 558 not available. How many A380 'equipped' gates do they have? But I may be completely wrong!

More flights to MNL:

https://www.emirates.com/media-centr...eekly-flights/

Downgrade ? A 359 is a considerable upgrade compared to a 777. Slightly higher air pressure in cabin, less aircraft noise, even in Y. Same applis to 787.

From a capacity standpoint.

Exactly that. Or some other maintenance on the airfield that is limiting A380 operations.

The timings of the flight do not create too many short connection itineraries across DXB:
DXB 1245 0125+1 MNL
MNL 0325 0825 DXB

I bet EK would have preferred a 10pm departure from Dubai for this flight, but the reality is obtaining slots at MNL in peak times is near impossible.

What I find interesting about this new flight is that it only operates 4-times weekly. It will be interesting to see if they can utilize this aircraft on the other three days a week.

In other updates:
EK101/102 MXP downgraded to the 77L on Mar 29
EK103/104 ATH resumes on the 77W on May 1
EK392/393 SGN downgraded to the 77L on May 1

This means we still have a net 4 x 77Ws unallocated on Mar 29; and 2 x 77Ws unallocated on Jun 1.

I would guess MAN's fourth daily flight commences on a 3-class 77W on Jun 1, given the expected timing of the lounge coming online and the changes to EK019/020 on that date.

expansion is great and also glad it is keeping F.

Unfortunately EK85/86 only seems to be switching to a 3-class 380, not 4-class, as no PE inventory is showing up.

EK87/88 is the one with A380 4-class from 01/02/2026.....EK85/86 will switch from B777 4-class to A380 3-class.