Well, it’s Saturday, so it must be time to the paint gun out as Emirates demonstrate how one of their A380′s gets painted (Video – Airbus S.A.R.L.).

More aircraft repainting will be winging it’s way to you next week!

Emriates last month announced it was going to increase A380 services to 3 times daily, with 2 services operated by 777-300ER’s.

Well a month seems to be a short time in aviation as Emirates announcing they are to 4 times daily with A380′s.

Flights EK005 and EK006 are the latest conversions on the London route – leaving EK007 and EK008 as the remaining Boeing 777-300ER operated service, with everything else operated by Airbus A380′s.

For clarity – the service changes are listed below.

Dubai to London Heathrow from 24th January 2012 and 25th March 2012

EK007 DEPART DXB 03:10      ARRIVE LHR 07:05 - B777-300ER
EK001 DEPART DXB 07:45      ARRIVE LHR 11:35 - A380
EK029 DEPART DXB 09:40      ARRIVE LHR 13:30 - A380 from January 24, 2012, B777-300ER until then
EK003 DEPART DXB 14:30      ARRIVE LHR 18:15 - A380
EK005 DEPART DXB 16:30      ARRIVE LHR 20:15 - A380 from March 25 2012, B777-300ER until then

All times local

London Heathrow to Dubai from 24th January 2012 and 25th March 2012

EK008 DEPART LHR 09:10      ARRIVE DXB 20:00   - B777-300ER
EK002 DEPART LHR 13:35      ARRIVE DXB 00:25+1 - A380
EK030 DEPART LHR 16:35      ARRIVE DXB 03:25+1 - A380 from January 24, 2012, B777-300ER until then
EK004 DEPART LHR 20:15      ARRIVE DXB 07:00+1 - A380
EK006 DEPART LHR 22:00      ARRIVE DHX 08:45+1 - A380 from March 25 2012, B777-300ER until then

All times local

Lets have some nice pretty looking aviation news, and it’s from Airbus who have released a picture of the first Thai Airways International Airbus A380 entering final assembly.

Image – (c) Airbus SAS 2011.

Now I don’t know about you, but that Purple on the tail fin does look very pretty indeed (and I do like the colour scheme they’ve chosen for the “re-brand”).

I’ll look forward to when Airbus outfit the new plane for Thai Airways, and to see it in service.

A bright spot for next year indeed…

The shy and retiring airline that’s known as Emirates has decided to upscale it’s operations to London again, and have disposed of a 777 and switched it to… an A380.

Flight EK29/30 from the 24th of January 2012 will go A380, adding more capacity on the run, and from the timings, perfect connection timings for some of their other Eastbound services

For those interested in the Emirates service, here are the timings of it’s London<>Dubai service, with equipment listed:

Dubai to London Heathrow from 24th January 2012

EK007 DEPART DXB 03:10      ARRIVE LHR 07:05 - B777-300
EK001 DEPART DXB 07:45      ARRIVE LHR 11:35 - A380
EK029 DEPART DXB 09:40      ARRIVE LHR 13:30 - A380 from January 24, 2012, B777-300 until then
EK003 DEPART DXB 14:30      ARRIVE LHR 18:15 - A380
EK005 DEPART DXB 16:30      ARRIVE LHR 20:15 - B777-300

All times local

London Heathrow to Dubai from 24th January 2012

EK008 DEPART LHR 09:10      ARRIVE DXB 20:00   - B773
EK002 DEPART LHR 13:35      ARRIVE DXB 00:25+1 - A380
EK030 DEPART LHR 16:35      ARRIVE DXB 03:25+1 - A380 from January 24, 2012, B777-300 until then
EK004 DEPART LHR 20:15      ARRIVE DXB 07:00+1 - A380
EK006 DEPART LHR 22:00      ARRIVE DHX 08:45+1 - B773

All times local

In a way, it’s good to see their demand is still sky-rocketing, but in another way, this is starting to smell like… capacity dumping.  That’s an awful lot of seats to fill on a short 6:45 leg…

Malaysia Airlines have quietly rolled out where they’re going to be taking their A380′s to, and has quietly announced it’s going to serve London Heathrow with the big Airbus’s.

Currently, the aircraft is booked as below, operating 3 days a week from between KL and London:

MH002 DEPART KUL 2340   ARRIVE LHR  0550+1 Operates Monday, Thursday, Saturday
MH003 DEPART LHR 1200   ARRIVE KUL  0725+1 Operates Tuesday, Friday, Sunday

Commencement: 2nd July 2012
Equipment: Airbus A380-800

From 15th August 2012, this service is due to go daily.

Reservations and data is now loaded in the GDS’s – so they’re available to book.

The layout is

• First Class – 8 Seats, Lower Deck
• Business Class 52 Seats, Upper Deck
• Economy Class -  Upper Deck  – 96 Seats, Lower Deck 347
• Total:  503 Seats

Airline Route has seat maps and other fun things related to the launch.

Yes, you read that right. 700 seats.

Transareo – Russia’s 2nd largest airline – will be the first Russian airline to take delivery of Four Airbus A380′s according to airbus.com

Image – Airbus SARL.

Transareo will be planning to operate these aircraft on long-haul routes from Moscow, in a 3 cabin layout seating about 700 passengers.

Olga Pleshakova, Transaero Airlines CEO says:

”Transaero is experienced in operating long-range wide-body aircraft, and is now ready to offer the A380. I am sure that the operation of this high capacity aircraft will stimulate the development of Russia’s aviation sector, in particular airports infrastructure while passengers will benefit from a completely new experience.”

Whilst Vladimir Putin may not like they’re not “Buying Russian”, the only larger plane that is Russian (or Russian Technology) is the AN-225 (and that’s Ukrainian at a push), and she’s a cargo bird.

Transaero operates 130 routes, and is a co-partner on the London Heathrow-Moscow DME run with British Midland International.

The only other operator who is considering such a mad configuration is Air Austral – who is planning a vision of Dante’s Inferno with 840 seats in an all-economy version of the plane.

If Transaero can make these numbers work, it’ll be interesting – but not my first choice of carrier with that sort of density aboard….

News from over the channel, with Air France preparing to commence an A380 equipment service from Paris Charles De Gaulle (CDG) to Los Angeles International (LAX) from the 28th May 2012

The proposed schedule is :

AF066    DEPT CDG 10:30      ARRIVE LAX 13:05
AF065    DEPT LAX 15:50      ARRIVE CDG 11:20+1

Commencement: 28/05/2012, All times local
 Booked Equipment: Airbus A380

In addition to operating the LAX with an A380, Air France serves New York-JFK and Washington Dulles-IAD.

An important note to those of you who do fly A380 on Air France – the premium economy product (Premium Voyageur) will be live on all A380′s from 12th December 2011 which should make those long journeys across the pond or where-ever a bit more comfortable….

It seems whilst it’s trying to fix little BMI (or getting shot of it), Lufthansa itself is steaming ahead with more orders today

For fans of the A380, Lufthansa is ordering 2 new A380′s.

In addition, there’s a fair old smatter of aircraft Lufthansa are shopping for including:

• 5 Embraer 195′s
• 4 Airbus A320′s
• 1 Airbus A330-300

The Airbus order is the process of being finalised to completion, with delivery dates not confirmed at this time.

Whilst not the biggest of orders on the planet, it’s a moderate controlled expansion of Lufthansa – something that is a bit logical when you look at some of the mass purchases of aircraft recently.

So what else can we work out from those numbers? With a few extra E-195′s and A320′s, it could be an indication that the 737-300 and 737-500 fleets may not be long for this world. We all know the A320 as a great short haul aircraft, and the E-195′s are near enough mainline capacity these days with a rated 106 seats in a two class configuration or 118 seats in a single class 31″ pitch (the 737-500′s are rated for 122 in a single class, 108 2 class),

The A380 expansion opens up a new question – what routes are heavy enough to deploy that bird on? That’s going to be an interesting one to watch I suspect…

China Southern will take delivery of it’s first Airbus A380 on Friday October 14.

To celebrate the occasion, there will be a ceremony at Airbus Headquarters in Toulouse on the 14th.

China Southern is planning to operate it’s A380 initially on domestic trips, with:

• Beijing-Guangzhou route from October 18, switching to
• Beijing-Shanghai route from October 27

The A380 will be fitted with 506 seats in a 3 Class layout of First, Business and Economy Classes.

Lets hope they make a success of the routes with this aircraft.

It’s Sunday again, so it must be time for some more airplane p0rn.

This week, it’s a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 taxiing at London Heathrow Airport, on the way to Singapore.

More of course next week!

As there’s not much to do until I get home, I’m going to do some news for a bit.

Singapore Airlines have annouced that they will be switching the Singapore to New York JFK route from a Boeing 747 to a Airbus A380, effective 15th January 2012.

It is unknown if this will be a a first tranche layout aircraft (with Economy at the back of the upper deck plane) or a second trance (with business class solely on the upper deck)

Singapore Airlines operates it’s A380′s to Los Angeles, and will be the 2nd destination of the SQA380′s in the USA.

For mileage redeemers, this is a lump of bad news as Singapore Airlines are poor at opening up their redemptions seats to partners on A380 aircraft – least of all their precious Suites. There may be a chance to book a redemption, and it upgraded – but don’t hold your breath….