Emirates focuses Airbus A380 operations on key international routes through late decade

The second-busiest Emirates A380 route in 2025 is between Dubai and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK), with an average of three or four flights per day and a total of 1,413 flights each way during the year. Emirates is the only carrier offering direct flights between these two cities.

Dubai to Cairo International Airport (CAI) is third on the list for A380 operations, with 1,095 flights scheduled each way in 2025. This averages three daily services in both directions. EgyptAir also operates non-stop flights between Dubai and Cairo.

Other routes where Emirates deploys the A380 three times daily include Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), Manchester Airport (MAN), and Sydney Airport (SYD). Emirates is the sole operator of direct services from Dubai to Manchester and Sydney; Air France provides competition on Paris routes.

On its seventh-busiest A380 route—Dubai to Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED)—Emirates faces competition from flydubai, flynas, and Saudia. The airline serves four major airports in Saudi Arabia and continues to invest in airport facilities there as part of broader aviation growth plans tied to Saudi Vision 2030.

A third UK airport appears among Emirates’ busiest A380 routes: London Gatwick Airport (LGW). In 2025, there will be 933 flights operated by the A380 in each direction between Dubai and Gatwick. Starting early 2026, one of four daily services will continue using the A380 while others will switch to Boeing 777-300ERs or Airbus A350-900s—a type that joined Emirates’ fleet in 2024.

Emirates' expansion at Gatwick is part of a larger UK strategy that includes up to twelve daily services across London’s airports—Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted—and about 140 weekly departures across eight UK destinations including Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Newcastle.

Rounding out Emirates' top ten busiest A380 routes for next year are Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) with 797 annual flights per direction and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) with 730. Singapore Changi remains a significant global air hub serving over sixty million passengers annually.

As reported by ch-aviation data cited by Emirates, it operates more than any other airline's share of Airbus A380s globally. Other major operators include Singapore Airlines and British Airways—with twelve aircraft each—and Qantas with ten.

Despite production ending in 2021 for the Airbus A380 model [https://www.airbus.com/en/products/commercial-aircraft/passenger-aircraft/a380], Emirates plans to keep flying its superjumbos into at least the late 2030s through ongoing retrofit programs that update cabins—including premium economy—to meet evolving passenger expectations.