Dubai's national carrier Emirates will be operating a one-off A380 service to Vienna next month to celebrate 10 years of its commitment to Austria.

The Emirates’ double decker, which carries over 500 passengers, will make history when it becomes the first ever scheduled A380 service to Vienna International Airport.  

Emirates has been flying to Austria since May 2004, and has gradually built up its services from 4 to 13 flights a week, currently operated by the B777-300ER aircraft. Since 2004, Emirates has carried over two million passengers on the route between Vienna and Dubai.

The A380 service will replace the usual EK 125 and EK 8126 departing Dubai at 5.15pm and arriving in Vienna at 9.10pm. The return flight will leave Vienna at 12.20am and arrive in Dubai at 8am.

“We would like to thank the Austrian Authorities and Vienna International Airport for supporting the deployment of this one-off Emirates A380 operation,” said Thierry Antinori, Emirates executive VP and chief commercial officer.

“Celebrating a decade of successful operations to Vienna is a historic milestone for us and demonstrates our continued commitment to Austria, which has become a key business and leisure destination for Emirates, in addition to a strategic gateway to the burgeoning economies of Central and Eastern Europe,” he added.

Emirates has developed its operations in Vienna using a strategic approach to gradually increase its services based on real market demand, and has been successful in doing so, recording high seat factors on a year round basis.

“We hope that the iconic city of Vienna will become part of our growing list of international cities served by the Emirates A380. More importantly we hope that we are able to provide our world-class product, and much needed convenience, to both our customers in Austria and the thousands of international visitors who wish to travel there,” continued Antinori.

Julian Jäger, member of the Management Board of Flughafen Wien AG, said: "Emirates has connected two important business and tourism regions, the Middle East and Austria, for ten years."

"An excellent partnership has developed between Vienna Airport and Emirates during that time, and we look forward to continuing this productive co-operation in the future," he added.-TradeArabia News Service