Emirates, the world's largest A380 operator, is all set to receive its milestone 100th A380 aircraft on November 3, 2017.

Over 80 million passengers have flown on the superjumbo in the nine years since it first joined Emirates' fleet. Today, Emirates flies the A380 to over 45 destinations spanning Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, and is welcomed by local economies as a contributor to tourism and visitor growth.

Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, said: "The A380 has been, and continues to be hugely popular amongst our customers, many of whom deliberately plan their travel so that they can fly on it. But we don't rest on our laurels and continually invest to enhance our product so as to continue offering our customers the best possible inflight experience.

With its inaugural A380 flight in 2008, Emirates introduced several industry firsts including its iconic A380 Onboard Lounge and First Class Shower spa. Since 2008, the efficient A380 aircraft has been further enhanced to operate even longer routes. This had enabled Emirates to add more destinations to its A380 network, including the world's longest A380 flight - a non-stop Dubai-Auckland service introduced in March 2016.

Today, the Emirates A380 reaches all ends of the globe with non-stop flights to Sao Paulo, Casablanca, Copenhagen, Tokyo, and Los Angeles from Dubai. Emirates also introduced the world's first 2-class configured A380 in November 2015, making it the highest-capacity plane in the world with 615 seats on board while retaining the airline's signature inflight services and comfort.

Emirates has also invested close to $1 billion on hardware to provide a more comfortable viewing experience. Over the years, in-seat screens have been made larger across all classes. The screen in First Class has increased from 27 inches to 32 inches, the screens in Business Class from 17 inches to 20 inches, while screens on the latest A380 aircraft offer the industry's largest in Economy at 13.3 inches from its original 10 inch screen. Little touches have also been introduced including USB ports for power and data in each seat as well as HDMI ports in premium classes to connect personal devices to the ice screen.

The entire A380 fleet has also been fitted with connectivity to allow for free 20mb of Wi-Fi throughout the cabin. In June last year, the first A380 was fitted with Live TV allowing passengers to watch news and sports matches live on board.

"Our frequent flyers will have noticed countless improvements onboard over the years, ranging from minor updates such as the addition of in-seat USB and HDMI ports, to bigger cabin overhauls where for instance we relocated the central overhead luggage bins to create more spacious cabin on the upper deck, and when we introduced bigger and better inflight entertainment systems, amongst many other initiatives," Clark added.

Source: Khaleej Times