Emirates is one of two flag carriers of the United Arab Emirates along with Etihad Airways and is based in Dubai. The airline is a subsidiary of The Emirates Group, which is wholly owned by the government of Dubai's Investment Corporation of Dubai. It is the largest airline in the Middle East, operating over 3,500 flights per week from its hub at Dubai International Airport, to more than 142 cities in 78 countries across six continents. Cargo activities are undertaken by the Emirates Group's Emirates SkyCargo division. The airline is the seventh largest airline in the world in terms of revenue, and is the largest airline in the Middle East in terms of revenue, fleet size, and passengers carried. As of 2014, the airline is the fourth-largest airline in the world in terms of international passengers carried and third largest in terms of scheduled passenger-kilometres flown. The airline is also the third-largest in terms of scheduled freight tonne-kilometres flown. The company also operates four of the world's longest non-stop commercial flights from Dubai to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Houston. During the mid-1980s, Gulf Air began to cut back its services to Dubai. As a result Emirates was conceived in March 1985 with backing from Dubai's royal family, with Pakistan International Airlines providing two of the airline's first aircraft on wet-lease. It was required to operate independent of government subsidies, apart from $10 million in start-up capital. The airline became headed by Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the airline's present chairman. In the years following its founding, the airline expanded both its fleet and its destinations. In October 2008, Emirates moved all operations at Dubai International Airport to Terminal 3 to sustain its rapid expansion and growth plans. Emirates operates a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing wide-body aircraft and is one of the few airlines to operate an all-wide-body aircraft fleet, at the centre of which is the Boeing 777. Emirates also has orders for 140 Airbus A380s and became the second operator of the type after Singapore Airlines. Emirates is an industry bellwether for aircraft purchases, having purchased 200 aircraft in 2013 alone. Emirates has built up a strong brand name as a leader in the aviation industry, particularly in terms of service excellence, and its very rapid growth, coupled with consistent profitability. Emirates has won numerous awards – it was ranked 8th by Air Transport World for "Airline of the Year" in 2012. The award has been given based on recognition of its commitment to safety and operational excellence, customer service trendsetters, financial condition including a 25-year consecutive annual profit. Emirates is rated as a four-star airline by aviation consultancy group Skytrax. The airline was voted Airline of the Year in 2013. The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner, and the airports at which it operates have upgraded facilities to accommodate it. It was initially named Airbus A3XX and designed to challenge Boeing's monopoly in the large-aircraft market. The A380 made its first flight on 27 April 2005 and entered commercial service in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines. The A380's upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, with a width equivalent to a wide-body aircraft. This gives the A380-800's cabin 478 square metres (5,145.1 sq ft) of usable floor space, 40% more than the next largest airliner, the Boeing 747-8, and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in an all-economy class configuration. The A380-800 has a design range of 8,500 nautical miles (15,700 km), sufficient to fly nonstop from Dallas to Sydney, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h, 560 mph or 490 kn at cruising altitude). As of January 2015, Airbus had received 317 firm orders and delivered 153 aircraft; Emirates has the most A380s on order with 140 and 58 delivered. Nicknamed Superjumbo, the first A380, MSN003, (registered as 9V-SKA) was delivered to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007 and entered service on 25 October 2007 with flight number SQ380 between Singapore and Sydney. Passengers bought seats in a charity online auction paying between $560 and $100,380. Two months later, Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choong Seng stated the A380 was performing better than both the airline and Airbus had anticipated, burning 20% less fuel per passenger than the airline's 747-400 fleet. Emirates' Tim Clark claims that the A380 has better fuel economy at Mach 0.86 than at 0.83, and that its technical dispatch reliability (a measure of reliability) is at 97%, same as those of Singapore Airlines. Airbus is committed to reach the industry standard of 98.5%.

• published: 31 Jan 2014
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