Ten airlines continue to have scheduled flights on the Airbus A380. Naturally, the carriers’ many frames have very different capacities and configurations. Of course, the most unusual and notable is Emirates’ two-class, non-first-class, 615-seater.

Big changes are coming to Emirates’ 615-seat A380s. As previously reported, the low-premium, very high-capacity configuration will be retired. The 15 aircraft with that layout will be retrofitted with a still-extremely-high 569 seats, with the addition of premium economy. But before then, other changes are afoot.

Flights On The 615-Seater Are Down By 62%

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Due to the continuing war in Iran, Emirates’ overall schedule in April has seen many substantial changes. This includes all configurations of the A380, with 15 routes not seeing the superjumbo in that spring month. Compared to April 2025, Gulf carrier’s schedule submission to Cirium Diio shows that its total A380 departures from Dubai have fallen by 43%.

Things are even worse for its 615-seaters. Departures from the carrier’s UAE hub have fallen from 394 last April (12 to 14 daily) to just 150 now (five daily). That’s a substantial reduction of 62% year-over-year. Until last week’s schedule update, 360 departures were planned (12 daily). Flights to Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Kuala Lumpur, London Gatwick, Prague, and Taipei have been removed.

The even bigger decline in this configuration’s flights perhaps reflects the much higher capacity during a period of lower demand. Meanwhile, ch-aviation indicates that two aircraft, A6-EOP and A6-EUX, have not flown since before the war started on February 28.

According to Flightradar24, Oscar Papa has been in Guangzhou since February 11, while Uniform X-Ray has been parked in Dubai since February 22. Perhaps both aircraft are undergoing heavy maintenance or reconfiguration into the airline’s new 569-seat layout.

These Routes Will See The 615-Seat A380 In April

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As of March 31, and certainly subject to change, the world’s highest-capacity double-decker quadjet is scheduled to operate these five routes. They include the ever-popular Indonesian destination of Bali/Denpasar, to which Emirates’ superjumbos recently returned after a five-week pause that was not connected to the war.

Only two of the five routes will be entirely on the 615-seater in April. They include Birmingham, which has been served by Emirates since 2000. It is hard to imagine that over a quarter of a century has now passed since its first flight to the West Midlands region of the UK. The A380 first appeared in 2016; I visited to see it. Only non-first-class superjumbos have been used.

According to the UK Civil Aviation Authority, Emirates carried 607,026 round-trip passengers between Birmingham and Dubai last year. Split unfairly over the year, that was 1,663 passengers daily. Approximately 60% of the passengers connected in Dubai.

This was when the carrier had two daily flights: one on the A380 and one on the 777-300ER. With 754,388 seats for sale, its average load was 80.5%. As always, this is just one performance measure, and should not be considered in isolation.

Related

Emirates Pulls The Airbus A380 From 15 Major Routes: Here’s Why

The continuing war in Iran has led to a drastic reduction in Emirates’ A380 departures from Dubai, with plans subject to rapid change.

Where Did The 615-Seater Fly In April Last Year?

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In April 2025, Emirates flew the 615-seater on 15 routes. They were Dubai to Amsterdam (only three flights), Bali/Denpasar (daily), Bangkok (two daily), Birmingham (daily), Casablanca (only five flights), Copenhagen (daily), Düsseldorf (daily), Hong Kong (only one flight), Jeddah (only four flights), Kuala Lumpur (daily), London Gatwick (daily), Manchester (daily), Mauritius (daily), Prague (daily), and Taipei (daily).

As mentioned earlier, this configuration operated 394 departures from Dubai last April. It was the layout’s greatest number of flights in that spring month on record.

Emirates has 15 A380s with 615 seats, out of its subfleet of 116 superjumbos. Some 12% of them have that capacity. Yet in April 2025, they operated 17% of the type’s flights. The gap is explained by the stage length of its highest-capacity equipment being 18% shorter than for its higher-premium frames.