Emirates A380 to Celebrate Rome’s Fiumicino Airport’s 50th Anniversary

[HD video below] Emirates is sending its popular A380 aircraft to Rome to mark Fiumicino airport's 50th anniversary, along with 150 years of Italian unification.

On 6 June 2011, the superjumbo replaces EK 97 and EK 98 - departing Dubai at 0855hrs and arriving in Rome at 1315hrs. The flight leaves Fiumicino at 1645hrs and arrives in Dubai at 0035hrs the next day.

The one-off trip gives passengers travelling to and from Rome an opportunity to fly on one of the world's most talked about aircrafts, offering 14 Private First Class Suites, 76 Business Class mini-pods and 427 seats in Economy Class.

“Our A380 demonstrates the future of aviation - both in terms of passenger experience and environmental sensitivity. This aircraft is sought after by travellers around the world, and now passengers travelling between Dubai and Rome have an opportunity to enjoy our superjumbo, while we join in the celebrations for both Fiumicino airport and Italy as a nation,” said Salem Obaidalla, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe & Russian Federation. “Many of those who have watched and admired our A380 since its introduction to the fleet in 2008 may not realise that the A380 experience comes at no extra cost compared to our other aircraft.”

Elia Pistola, ADR Executive Vice President - Aviation, said, “This will be the first A380 arrival in Rome and we are going to celebrate it as the first Italian airport able to welcome an A380 flight with the full operational infrastructure. The new dedicated loading bridge is a strategic investment for Rome “Leonardo da Vinci” airport as the A380 is the best aircraft to cover major and growing markets, as served by Emirates via Dubai.”

Emirates has been flying to Rome since 1992 and later added services to Milan and Venice - making a total of 35 flights a week to Italy. Passenger traffic on Emirates’ Italian routes has more than tripled since 2006, to over 900,000 passengers in 2010.

In 2010, Emirates’ freight to and from Italy grew by 21% over the previous year, while the total value of trade between Italy and the UAE was 3.2 billion Euros.

HD Video of First and Business Class on an Emirates Airbus A380

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