Flying High with an A380

Last week myself and my colleagues were invited to Birmingham Airport for a tour around an Emirates A380 plane. I’ve never really seen myself as a plane spotter but I was being offered a day out of the office and everyone seems to rave about the A380 so I jumped at the opportunity.

The day started with an update about Birmingham airport, which as it is my local airport was very beneficial. They have made a lot of changes over recent years and with parking improvements too it is looking great. Whilst we were learning about the changes and enjoying our coffer we were able to watch the EK39 from Dubai coming in to land. She really is huge.

Emirates staff have just 1 hour 40 minutes to turn the plane around and they do an amazing, shortly after she landed all the passengers were off, the turn around staff were on and we got to look around the plane.

The A380 has two levels with the upper deck being home to 58 business class seats and 120 economy class in a 2-4-2 configuration. The lower deck is home to 437 economy class seats in a 3-4-3 configuration. As you can see the seats have a great seat pitch and there is a good deal of room about you. As well as storage above those by the windows benefit from additional storage. All seats are fitted with individual screens and the entertainment system offers over 2000 channels to choose from. Seats can be prebooked at a charge via the Emirates website.

The business class seats all recline to full flat beds. They stretch out to over 6ft 5″ to allow guests to fully relax and sleep in comfort. Each seat has it’s own mini bar and table top/desk with in seat power for your lap top to allow you to work whilst on your journey. The cabin crew will bring drinks to your table or their is a full bar area where you can mingle with other guests.

On some A380’s there are even showers on board, although not on the ones from Birmingham. They do though have the largest toilets that I have ever seen on a plane.

All business class customers and Emirates Platinum and Gold members have free access to the the Emirates lounge which is open for about 3 hours before both of Birmingham’s daily flights to Dubai. The lounge was large with a number of different areas to sit and a quiet area which can be used for prayer. It offers a large range of hot and cold meals in a buffet style and a full bar selection including champagne to help yourself too.

As a cruise consultant I frequently tailor customers cruise holidays, adding flights and hotels to a cruise. I often have a choice of airlines to choose from, particularly when flying to the Far East and Australia and I tend to look at British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Etihad and Emirates. but have never really paid attention to the planes that they use.  This day has really helped my product knowledge though, I can see why people rave about the A380 and will have no hesitation in recommending it and Emirates in the future.

Thank you to Phil Courtney from Emirates and Shellie Harris from Birmingham Airport for a fun and informative day.