Emirates Airbus A380 lands at Colombo
Emirates’ double decked Airbus A380 aircraft will make a one-off landing at the Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Katunayake, in Sri Lanka on the 14th August 2017, the first airline to land this wide-body aircraft at the airport’s new resurfaced runway.
The special flight will be the first A380 aircraft to disembark passengers in Sri Lanka after completing a commercial service. The one-off A380 aircraft will arrive at 16:10 hours and be on ground for more than six hours. Before it returns to Dubai as flight EK655 departing at 22:10 hours, enabling airport executives, VIPs, trade partners and media to enjoy a guided static tour of the double-decker aircraft. The airline said in a media release.
This is not exactly the first time an Emirates Airbus A380 plane has landed here in Sri Lanka. In June 2015 the mentioned aircraft with more than 500 people on board had to make an emergency landing in Sri Lanka due to a technical fault.
The aircraft was en route to Dubai from Sydney when it was diverted to Colombo, where it landed safely.
“Colombo has welcomed us from the day Emirates commenced daily flights from Dubai in 1986, just a year after the airline launched its operations. We are honoured to work alongside the city, airport, and the Sri Lankan Civil Aviation authorities, to bring our flagship A380 to this vibrant destination.
For Colombo and for aviation enthusiasts in Sri Lanka, this will certainly be a special day and we look forward to showcasing our unique on board products in this market,” said Ahmed Khoory, Emirates’ Senior Vice President, West Asia and Indian Ocean.
An A380 aircraft can carry 853 passengers (538 on the main deck and 315 on the upper),
Customers in Sri Lanka can experience Emirates’ double-decker aircraft by connecting through the airline’s Dubai hub to more than 45 A380 destinations. As the first and only airline in the world to operate a fleet of all Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft for its passenger flights, Emirates’ operating fleet remains modern and efficient while offering customers a high level of comfort. Since 2008, Emirates has flown over 80 million passengers on its A380 fleet, the release said.
The story is a follow up from our story titled Airport closure a complete waste of time and money which we published on the 26th April 2017
This is a big embarrassment to the airport, the government and officials. Surely the contractors knew how to read a tape measure!!!
The extra wide runway would also allow for larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380 super jumbo to be able to use the airport.
The problem is that the contractors measured the extra 30 metres incorrectly and actually only widened the runway to 60 metres making it short by 15 metres when measured by the IATA officials.
We are pleased to advise that this problem has since been rectifield and the addtional 15 metres has been added to the runway width without any further closures taking place.
This is good news to Sri Lankan tourism, in addition to the extra flights from Moscow and Melbourne.
To search for any flights to Colombo and beyond with Emirates or any other long haul airline, click HERE