19 March,2009 11:34 AM IST | | Agencies
One of two airlines flying the world's biggest plane to the US is pulling the aircraft off the route because of the economic downturn. Dubai-based Emirates said it would replace two double-decker Airbus A380s it uses on a daily Dubai-New York flight with smaller Boeing 777s starting June 1.
A second daily roundtrip already using the same type of Boeing plane remains unchanged. The turnaround comes less than eight months after Emirates debuted the wide-body "superjumbo" in the US amid much fanfare. Since then, American household and company travel budgets have grown increasingly strained as the country slipped deeper into recession.
Swapping the planes for a smaller model will give Emirates 132 fewer seats it needs to fill on the route each day, according to a company official who declined to be named in line with company policy.
"As the global economy has affected international air travel, this aircraft redeployment was based solely on a change in capacity demands," Emirates said in an e-mailed statement.
"When economic conditions improve, we anticipate demand will be restored on the Dubai-New York JFK service, at which time Emirates will certainly evaluate redeploying the A380 on this route."
