Carrier schedules big plane's first U.S.commercial flights

The giant Airbus A380 double-decker super-jumbo has made a few test flights to the U.S., but now paying passengers who want to be the first on their block to ride the big plane can book a trip. Emirates Airlines said it will begin regular commercial flights with the A380 between New York JFK and Dubai starting August 1. The airline will supplement its regular twice-daily JFK-Dubai service with extra A380 flights on August 1 and 3, then will put the A380 into regular service August 8, with eastbound departures on Fridays, Sundays and Wednesdays. The non-stop flight to Dubai takes 14 hours. Emirates hasn’t yet revealed what kinds of special amenities and facilities it will offer for A380 passengers – it promises to do that in late July – but it has said that its A380s will carry 489 passengers, including 399 in economy, 76 in business class and 14 in first class. Emirates has placed an $18.8 billion order for 58 of the big planes, which can fly up to 7,456 miles fully loaded. Emirates is on a growth track in the U.S. having announced plans to supplement its existing JFK and Houston routes with LAX-Dubai service starting September 1, and San Francisco-Dubai flights on October 26.