Nearly 15 years have passed since the first A380 took off on its first commercial flight in October 2007. Since then, the double-decker quadjet has been used on a huge array of sector lengths, with Cirium showing an average of 4,389 miles (7,063km).
But what about short flights or routes? There have been many, both for regular commercial reasons and one-offs or time-limited services for crew training and familiarization. My shortest was Air France between London Heathrow and Paris CDG in 2010.
While one-offs are exciting, the shortest 10 A380 routes in the past 15 years with at least 20 services are as follows. Singapore Airlines to Kuala Lumpur was number one. Operated for training and crew re-familiarization, it ran from November 4th, 2021, and had a typical flight time of 40 minutes.
Next is Air France between Paris CDG and London Heathrow. It performed 80 roundtrip flights using its now-defunct 538-seaters between June and August 2010; I was on it and was delighted to be upgraded to first for the 35-minute trip.
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As overwhelmingly the largest A380 user, it's no surprise that Emirates has regularly used the A380 on short routes. At just 217 miles (349km), its shortest, more regular operation was between Dubai and the Oman capital.
To celebrate 25 years of Emirates serving Oman, it first used the quadjet to Muscat on July 1st, 2018. Precisely one year later, it entered normal, regular commercial service on the airport pair.
With up to 2x daily flights, it was used on EK682 and EK864. These operated 08:25-09:35 and 16:10-17:25. Returning, it was deployed on EK683 and EK685 and were scheduled as 11:15-12:25 and 19:05-20:15. Given COVID, the last A380 to Muscat was in February 2020. Will it ever return?
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Things are different between September and December 2022. At 1,049 miles (1,688km), the shortest is Emirates between Bangkok and Hong Kong, according to Cirium. With fifth freedom traffic rights, this is, of course, part of its Dubai-Bangkok-Hong Kong routing. The A380 was first utilized on it back in October 2010.
While the B777-300ER currently serves the airport pair, the A380 will return on October 1st. Operating 1x daily, EK384 will leave Dubai at 02:50 (primarily fed by a huge number of European arrivals) and arrive in Thailand at 12:30.
After a 1h 35m turn, it'll leave for Hong Kong at 14:05 and arrive at 18:05. EK385 will depart Hong Kong at 21:30 and arrive back in Dubai (to feed Europe and more), via Bangkok, at 04:45 the next day.
What is the shortest A380 route you're flown? Let us know in the comments.