Beginning June 1, 2009 Emirates will use the Airbus A380 Super Jumbo to fly the 3 times weekly Toronto to Dubai route. The carrier cites strong demand on the route for the aircraft change.As a result, the New York JFK-Dubai route loses the A380 service and reverts to twice daily Boeing 777 flights.
Some rumours are floating around stating that one reason behind the change is for Emirates to prove to the Canadian government that they should change or remove restrictions on how many flights are allowed between Canada and the U.A.E.. Whether this is true or not there are pros and cons to both sides. While it always good to have more direct flights out of Canada, airlines like Air Canada stand to lose connecting traffic to points beyond Dubai as many people flying on Emirates are not ending their travels in Dubai, they are continuing on to other locations in Asia, Australia and Africa. Emirates has even expressed interest in serving other Canadian cities like Vancouver and Calgary should the regulations be relaxed.
It will be interesting to see how all of this pans out over the coming months.
I recently flew in A380 JFK-Dubai route & surprisingly I found most passengers occupying 2 seats and business class second section was almost empty only 2 passengers including myself were occupying it. I think emirates has a made a good decision for putting A380 in Toronto
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