Dubai's flag carrier Emirates has announced plans to deploy its signature A380 aircraft to Indonesian province of Bali starting from June thus marking a milestone in its aviation history as the first A380 service to the Southeast Asian country.

The new 2-class Emirates A380 service will replace one of the two daily services to Bali currently operated by a 2-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

The airline’s debut A380 flight EK368 will take off from Dubai International Airport (DXB) at 3.25am and land in Denpasar International Airport (DPS) at 4:35pm local time; on return, the flight EK369 will depart Bali at 7.40pm and arrive in Dubai at 12:45 midnight local time.

On the deployment of the largest passenger aircraft to Bali, Chief Commercial Officer Adnan Kazim, said: 'The Emirates A380 is synonymous with our fly better promise and world-class products and services, and we’re excited to offer our travellers the opportunity to experience its uniqueness and unmatched beauty on flights to and from Bali.'

'Bali continues to be one of the most popular tourist destinations in our network and strategic markets in Southeast Asia, and the Emirates A380’s debut in Indonesia underscores our long-standing commitment to its travel and tourism sector,' he noted.

'We look forward to driving more inbound traffic to the island, while also offering leisure and business travellers more opportunities to connect to Dubai and beyond to cities across Europe and the Americas through Emirates’ extensive global network,' he added.

Faik Fahmi, President Director of PT. Angkasa Pura I, pointed out that the scheduled operations of the Airbus A380 in Indonesia will be a historic moment for Indonesian aviation and Angkasa Pura I.

'We welcome the Emirates A380 service, which will operate in early June, and are honored to be the first airport operator to receive regular commercial flights of the aircraft in the country. This is the result of well-established coordination, synergy, and cooperation between Angkasa Pura I as the airport operator, Emirates, and the Ministry of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia as the regulator,' he noted.

'We hope the A380 operations in Indonesia, especially Bali, will have an increasingly positive impact on the tourism and economy sectors, and will further allow more opportunities for cooperation and investment in other sectors of the industry in Indonesia,' he added.

Emirates launched a non-stop daily service from Dubai to Bali in 2015, adding to its scheduled flights to Jakarta which began in 1992. The airline has so far operated more than 49,000 flights and carried over 9 million passengers between Indonesia and Dubai.

The carrier currently serves Indonesia with 28 weekly flights to both Bali and Jakarta, and offers increased connectivity to 29 more domestic cities via the two gateways through its partnership agreements with both Garuda Indonesia and Batik Air.

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