Shortest Airbus A380 flight in the world announced: rush for reservations, it's already almost sold-out
The Airbus A380 is an aircraft designed for the long haul, given its maximum range of 14,800 km. The longest flight [...]
Asiana Airlines
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L'Airbus A380 is an airplane designed for the long haul, given themaximum range of 14,800 km. The longest flight operated with the Superjumbo today is the Emirates Dubai-Auckland, in New Zealand, whose flight time is around 15 hours in the west-east direction and about 17 hours in the opposite direction.
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The connection is also, in terms of miles, The seventh longest non-stop flight in the world, the only one operated with A380s in a Top 10 dominated by Airbus A350-900s and -1000s and Boeing 787-9s.
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However, the largest passenger aircraft ever built was sometimes used on short if not very short routes, where it is clear that the effectiveness of boarding operations is crucial for departure and arrival to be on time.
The record in this regard had always been set by Emirates, putting the Superjumbo into service between its Dubai hub and Oman's capital, Muscat: a connection of barely 50 minutes of flight, that today the Gulf carrier flies a Boeing 777-300ER.
Around 50 minutes also lasted on the route operated between November and December 2021 by Singapore Airlines between its hub and Kuala Lumpur, at a time when the carrier was putting its A380s back into service after the long stop caused by the Covid outbreak and using the short route to 'refamiliarize' its crews with the giant of the skies before reusing them on the long haul.
To date, such short routes flown with the A380 do not exist. But Asiana, the Korean airline that will soon merge with Korean Air effectively disappearing as a stand-alone brand, announced a Seoul-Osaka that (with a duration of 1 hour and 45 minutes) is currently the shortest sector operated by an airline with the A380, beating the Dubai-Riyadh operated by Emirates.
Asiana has three daily flights between the two cities: one operated with A350-900 and two with A330-300. But on six days in 2024, the A330 afternoon flight will instead be operated by one of the 6 A380s in the Korean carrier's forceo, set up in two classes with 12 seats in Business Suite, 66 in Business and 417 in Economy.
This Will happen on May 5 and 6 and then on September 14, 15, 17 and 18. Such is the popularity of the aircraft, that May 5 and 6 flights are sold-out, while for September flights some seats are still available: on the 14th you can book from Seoul to Osaka only in Business Class, on the 15th also in Economy as well as on the 17th and 18th. It is expected that Asiana, as well as Korean Air, withdraw your Superjumbos from service. By 2026.
In the ranking of shortest flights operated with A380, Asiana's Seoul-Osaka precedes Emirates' Dubai-Riyadh (scheduled at 2 hours and 5 minutes), Asiana's Seoul-Tokyo Narita again (2 hours and 30 minutes), and three connections all Emirates: the Dubai-Mumbai (3 hours and 5 minutes) the Bangkok-Hong Kong (3 hours 15 minutes) and the Dubai-Jeddah (3 hours and 20 minutes).