Perth Airport’s has welcomed its first scheduled Airbus A380 service, with Emirates flight EK420 receiving a water cannon salute after landing a little before 1730 local time on Friday.
The flight, operated by A6-EOE, left Emirates’ Dubai hub at about 0330 local time Friday and landed almost 10 hours later in the West Australian capital.
Emirates is the first airline to offer scheduled flights with the double decker superjumbo at Perth Airport. It brings to five the number of the airline’s A380 ports in this part of the world, joining Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
One of the flight crew operating A6-EOE was 19-year Emirates veteran and WA-born Captain Steve Darnell, who said it was an honour to pilot the inaugural Emirates A380 service to his home city.
“It’s a world-class aircraft to fly, and its spacious and quiet cabins also make it also very comfortable to fly in,” Darnell said in a statement on Friday prior to A6-EOE’s departure from Dubai.
Currently, Emirates operates three flights a day between Perth and Dubai. However, it is reducing frequency on the route from July 6, dropping the daily EK423 1810 departure from Perth and reciprocal EK422, which leaves Dubai at 2145 local time.
Emirates divisional vice president for commercial operations in Australia Rob Gurney said the A380 flights from Perth would connect to another A380-operated service to 33 other destinations in the airline’s network from Dubai.
“The A380 is a state-of-the-art aircraft offering our flagship product in all three classes, and we look forward to providing this outstanding experience to our Perth passengers as well as to visitors flying into this vibrant city,” Gurney said in a statement on Friday.
Alliance partner Qantas places its QF airline code on all Emirates’ services out of Perth.
A6-EOE left Perth at about 2220 local time as the reciprocal EK421 bound for Dubai.
Meanwhile, Emirates said it planned to open an expanded lounge with more seating capacity at Perth Airport later in 2015 to cater for the increased number of passengers the A380 will bring to the route.
