LONDON – This week saw Emirates celebrate 15 years of services in Houston with the return of the Airbus A380 to the Texas-based airport.
The photos above show how the aircraft was welcomed into Houston on the 15th anniversary.
The Numbers…
Since the airline’s inaugural flight to Houston back in December 2007, they have served over 2.7 million passengers across 10,800 flights.
From the cargo perspective, Emirates SkyCargo has facilitated the trade of more than 112,000 tons of cargo to and from Houston over the last 15 years.
Some of the exports listed by the carrier from Houston were essential oils and raw materials used in the global beauty industry.
Mario Diaz, the Director of Houston Airports, said the following about this milestone:
“We are very pleased to celebrate this notable milestone with Emirates,”
“We applaud the organization’s investment in quality service to its passengers and its commitment to continued growth and excellence.”
“Because of the sustained excellence of airline partners like Emirates, Houston Airports serves as a world-class global gateway.”
Also commenting on the milestone was Essa Sulaiman Ahmad, the Divisional VP of Emirates in the USA & Canada:
“We are delighted to be celebrating 15 years of service to Houston, allowing our customers to fly with us directly from Texas to more than 130 destinations in our global network.”
“Houston is an important city in our U.S. network, with its cosmopolitan appeal as a destination and being home to various diaspora consisting of students and skilled professionals due to the city’s world-renowned academic institutions and specializations.”
“We look forward to welcoming more passengers onboard, flying to and from Dubai and the rest of our vast network, and allowing them to enjoy our personalized services and Emirates hospitality.”
The Flight…
According to data from RadarBox.com, the EK211 rotation between Dubai and Houston started operating the A380s on December 1.
The first flight left Dubai at 0951 local time and landed in Houston at 1639 local time.
It is a behemoth of a flight, coming in at around 16 hours and 48 minutes of flight time for this particular rotation in question.
Since then, the A380 has been utilized for each flight to Houston, which will also represent a significant boost to capacity as well.
Overall…
It remains clear that the relationship between Emirates and Houston has been long-standing and is indeed increasing in capacity and demand.
As the A380 continues to service this route, it will help the Dubai-based carrier increase its passenger numbers and cargo tonnage.
For passengers traveling to Dubai from Houston, the upgrade in equipment also represents an upgrade in the product as well, which will be another difference in change.
All eyes will be on Emirates to see whether this equipment upgrade could eventually turn into a frequency upgrade, especially if demand is becoming that more popular.
As more A380s are reactivated with Emirates, we will no doubt begin to see frequency upgrades as demand continues to rise post-pandemic.
