In a Facebook post published several hours ago, Emirates announced that it would upgrade the aircraft type serving its Dubai – Osaka Kansai route to an Airbus A380 starting from October 28, 2018.
From then on, the “superjumbo” will fly between the two cities daily instead of the currently scheduled Boeing 777-300ER with the following schedule (which remains the same as it is now):
- EK316 from Dubai to Osaka Kansai: depart at 3:40AM, arrive at 5:50PM
- EK317 from Osaka Kansai to Dubai: depart at 11:45PM, arrive at 4:50AM the next day
Besides offering additional capacity on the route, the A380 will also offer more comfort in all classes to passengers traveling between the two cities.
The ones that will benefit from this equipment change the most will be business class passengers who will be able to enjoy Emirates’ “1-2-1” staggered product instead of the 777-300ER’s substandard “2-3-2” product. First class passengers will be able to enjoy the famous onboard shower.
On a different note, with this change, Osaka Kansai will become the second Emirates’ destination in Japan to be served by the A380 with the other one being Tokyo Narita. Besides offering connections to the above two airports on a daily basis, Emirates also offers daily flights to Tokyo Haneda with a mix of 777-300ER and 777-200LR.
While in the past, Emirates also used to offer flights to Nagoya Centrair, those flights were been discontinued in 2009. Instead, the airline now offers complimentary bus connections from Osaka Kansai airport to Nagoya.