Emirates today took delivery of the first of its 58 Airbus A380 aircraft at a handover ceremony in Hamburg Germany.
Emirates’ following in Singapore Airlines foot steps is the second airline to take delivery of the Airbus A380 double-decker super jumbo, which features 14 First class suites, 76 Business Class seats and 399 Economy Class seats and in a world first for any commercial airline, Emirates A380 has two bathrooms with showers for its first class passengers.
Emirates A380 Business Class passengers don’t miss out either with an improved business class seat, and a premium+ lounge.
Emirates A380 showers are a boon and will be welcomed by its first class passengers but in order to service the first class showers an additional 500 litres of water will need to be carried on board each flight, and passengers will be limited to 5 minutes per shower that will be implemented via a warning light system, Emirates President Tim Clark had the following to say about Emirates A380 showers:
"The showers are regulated through a software programme that gives people a five-minute shower, which is ample in most cases," Clark told a news conference, adding that a traffic light system would let passengers know how long they had left. "If you're on amber and your hair's full of shampoo, you want to get moving."
On the flip side, and somewhat negating the weight of 500 Litres of water Emirates have reduced the total weight of its A380 by implementing a somewhat paperless cabin, moving in flight magazines and guides into the flight entertainment system.
"At the moment we have 1.8 kg in each seat pocket. We can't be completely paperless," he said, but information associated with sales, such as Duty Free products, currently in paper form was being put onto a retail TV channel, for example. Emirates was also looking at curtains, carpets and seat-back entertainment hardware for ways to contribute a total of 2 tonnes in weight reduction. Airbus meanwhile aimed to slim the A380 by a further 3 tonnes, including the airframe and by re-machining components.
"With today's fuel prices, then there's a huge pressure," said Airbus programmes chief Tom William "It's shaving. It's not like we're going to go to one section and remove all the weight. It's more a question of trying to get the thing refined and squeezing a few kilos here and there."