Emirates flies first A380 on trans-Tasman route

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 15 years ago

Emirates flies first A380 on trans-Tasman route

By Kim Ruscoe

Carrying almost 500 passengers, the Emirates A380-800 left Sydney about 9.30am yesterday on its first scheduled passenger flight to Auckland, arriving just after 2pm.

At the controls was New Zealander Wayne Taylor, who learned to fly in Rotorua. Several other Kiwis were on the flight decks. Among them was barman Troy Whittle, of Mt Albert, Auckland.

Having worked for Emirates for about five years, Mr Whittle now mans the upstairs lounge bar, serving up cocktails and canapes to business class passengers.

Loading

"At night time we drop the curtains down and make it a little bit darker," he said.

When he is not flying, Mr Taylor is based in Dubai.

Emirates provided "fantastic apartments" for its crew, with all utilities paid for and every kind of outdoor sport available on your doorstep, he said.

"I'm having the time of my life," Mr Taylor said.

The Emirates A380 will initially fly between Auckland and Dubai, via Sydney, three times a week but will increase as the company grows its fleet of A380s.

The plane features 14 first class "suites", 76 business class "pods" and 399 economy seats.

Advertisement

The first class suites are the height of luxury, with soft leather, fully reclining seats, work desk and built-in illuminated vanity mirror, personal electrically controlled mini bar and room service.

Two luxurious shower spas are also available to first class passengers on a booking system that allocates about 20 minutes to each passenger.

Luxury also abounds in business class, with seats housed in a "pod" that includes a mini bar, privacy panel between seats, laptop and shoe compartments and a touch screen seat controller and in-flight entertainment system.

But it was disappointing that the previously large and heavily padded business class seats had been replaced with a narrower, harder version in order to make way for the new gadgets.

The Dominion Post/stuff.co.nz

Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading