Emirates taking 15 two class, 617 seat A380s

Emirates will take delivery of 15 Airbus A380s that do not feature the airlines prestigious first class suites, Emirates' President Tim Clark said last week.

The airline is dropping its 14 first class suites and two showers from some of its undelivered superjumbos to introduce the world's first two-class configured A380, which will be able to seat 617 passengers. Emirates said in December that it would start operating some two-class A380s.

Emirates will receive its first two-class A380 in November and launch daily flights to Copenhagen, Denmark a month later.

The two-class superjumbo's could also "possibly” fly on services to London Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham in the United Kingdom, Clark told reporters at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual meet.

The two-class version will help Emirates move more passengers to slot constrained airports, including from its hub Dubai International, the world's busiest airport for international passenger traffic. However, Clark ruled out two-class services to London Heathrow, which was the world's busiest airport for international passenger traffic up until last year.

"The first class cabins on our A380s [to Heathrow], you don't get a seat so that wouldn't be a place to go,” he said.

Clark also said the aircraft was unlikely to fly to Australia and confirmed that the two-class version will have less cargo capacity than the existing three-class version that seats around 500 passengers.

"Cargo takes a little bit of a hit,” he said.

Emirates is the largest operator of the A380, flying 61 of the aircraft as of April from a total order of 140.

The airline has been pushing for manufacturer Airbus to commit to a more fuel efficient NEO (new engine option) version.

"We have made it very clear we are interested in the NEO,” Clark said.

Airbus President and Chief Executive, Fabrice Bregier, told Gulf News last week an A380neo is at least a decade away.