The A380 marked a major milestone this month with the five-year anniversary of its service entry in the fleet of Emirates – the largest operator and no. 1 customer for Airbus’ 21st century flagship jetliner

This Dubai-based carrier has conducted some 20,000 round trip flights since initiating A380 operations in August 2008 with a Dubai-New York flight. In five years, Emirates’ fleet has grown to include 35 A380s, which have flown some 265 million kilometres in total, while travelling to 37 airports worldwide and carrying more than 18 million passengers.

With Emirates, the A380 has served a variety of routes to some of the world’s key destinations, ranging from its longest non-stop flight – Dubai to New York (11,023 km.) – to the shortest, covering 1,900 km. between Hong Kong and Bangkok.   Along with major hub airports, the aircraft is used to such cities as Jeddah in Saudi Arabia; Toronto, Canada; Manchester, England and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The airline’s growing network will add service with this jetliner to Brisbane, Australia; Los Angeles; Mauritius; and Zurich by January 2014.

More than 7,000 cabin crew members support Emirates’ growing A380 fleet, along with nearly 670 flight deck crew. Emirates further optimised A380 operations through Dubai International’s Concourse A that opened in January 2013 as the world’s first purpose-built A380 terminal, serving as the dedicated home of a fleet that will grow with its total 90 aircraft on order.

Coinciding with the five-year anniversary, Emirates partnered with Google to launch the world’s first A380 “street view.” To take this interactive tour of the Emirates A380 cabin – which features private suites and shower spas in first class, flat-bed seats in business and extra room with custom lighting in economy class.

Airbus press release