From Delivery to First Commercial Flight: Emirates offers preview of A380 Pre-Service Check - to be distributed in 30minutes
DUBAI, U.A.E., 01 April 2015 – Emirates airline, the world’s largest Airbus A380 operator with 59 A380s in fleet and 81 A380s on order, has revealed an exclusive behind-the-scenes look of how it readies a newly delivered A380 for its first commercial flight.
Watch the Emirates A380 Pre-Service Check video here.
Once an A380 delivery flight lands in Dubai, a dedicated team of engineers and technicians at Emirates Engineering have just a few hours to ensure the newest addition to Emirates’ fast-growing fleet of 233 all wide-body aircraft meets the airline’s exacting operational standards.
In the case of its most recent A380 delivery, the Emirates Engineering Team executed a Pre-Service Check in just under 15 hours before the aircraft departed on its first commercial flight to Milan.
“When a brand new A380 arrives in Dubai from the Airbus Delivery Centre in Hamburg, we know it is already in perfect shape, but we need to add the extra Emirates touches, both inside and outside the aircraft to ensure it meets our exemplary standards. This ensures that we deliver a unique and distinctive customer experience onboard our flagship A380s,” says Chris Welham, Senior Manager, Base Operations and Recovery at Emirates Engineering.
The A380 Pre-Service Check brings together teams from four different departments of Emirates Engineering – A&C, Avionics, Cabin Appearance and Paint Shop, each working in tandem to get the aircraft ready for its first commercial flight.
A&C is responsible for checking all structures, fuselage, wings and engines of the giant A380, while Avionics ensures all requisite software and flight plans are loaded in the flight deck computers.
The Cabin Appearance team focuses on visually aesthetic touches, such as the installation of flower vases in the premium cabins, the addition of protective covers to the Onboard Lounge, the fixing of seat covers across all cabins, Onboard Shower Spa checks, and the loading of Open Skies magazines, ice guides and safety cards in all the passenger seats.
Emirates’ ice Digital Widescreen, featuring more than 2,000 channels of on-demand entertainment, also gets updated with the latest movies before receiving a final quality check.
Meanwhile, the Paint Shop team designs, produces and installs the iconic ‘Expo 2020 Dubai Host City’ decal on the flagship Emirates A380, which represents Dubai’s enterprising vision to a fast-growing network of over 35 A380 destinations.
The emergency equipment on board every newly delivered Emirates A380 also receives meticulous attention during the Pre-Service Check. All onboard safety and medical equipment are thoroughly checked to ensure that they are fully functional and operational as per Emirates’ standards. Equipment such as first aid kits, defibrillator and a scalamobile which enables passengers in wheelchairs to gain access to the aircraft are installed. Demonstration safety kits for cabin crew are also placed in the aircraft cabins.
It’s not just customers that reap the benefits of the highly comprehensive A380 Pre-Service Check. “We have had feedback from our pilots that they prefer sheepskin seat covers, so we also install them in the flight deck to ensure that our flight deck crew have an ergonomic and comfortable flying experience,” Welham continued.
With 15 new A380s joining the Emirates fleet in 2015, the A380 Pre-Service Check will continue to be a regular occurrence at Emirates Engineering. “With other airlines, the arrival of a new aircraft is a huge deal. At Emirates, although the technical work has become a well-honed routine, the excitement never goes away. Every new aircraft delivered is like a new baby joining the family. We want to give them the best start to a productive life,” concludes Welham.
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