In the latest schedule update, 
Emirates revealed that it’ll deploy the Airbus A380 from Dubai to Madinah. But it is not a regular operation. Instead, it will only operate on November 20. The reason seems to be the much higher demand from a big tour group traveling for Umrah reasons.
Emirates, flydubai, and flynas all have regular flights on the city pair, with up to five daily departures. Emirates’ daily service is nearly always on the Boeing 777-300ER, with the higher-capacity, 421-seat and 360-seat configurations often used. Although entirely unconnected, fellow United Arab Emirates airline Etihad Airways reintroduced Abu Dhabi-Madinah flights in the past week.
Emirates’ 615-Seat A380 From Dubai To Madinah
Blocked as low as 2h 30m, this route has temporarily become Emirates’ shortest service on the double-decker quadjet. It is 15 minutes shorter than was to be number one this month, 
Dubai to Jeddah. However, other, shorter flights on the double-decker existed earlier this year, when it briefly flew the type to Bahrain (1h 15m).
Emirates’ A380s are in multiple configurations. Capacity varies from 468 seats in a four-class layout to 615 seats in a two-class, non-first-class config. The carrier will use the 615-seater to Madinah. However, when writing, Flightradar24 does not indicate which registration has been assigned.
Emirates’ superjumbos have very occasionally been flown to Madinah, which is famous for pilgrimages. According to Cirium Diio data, the type was used there on August 23, 2017, and on August 2 and 3, 2019. The A380’s one-off return after more than six years is notable.
EK809 to Madinah must be extremely busy. After all, Google Flights indicates that this departure to Saudi Arabia tomorrow is a whopping $2,086 one-way in economy. In contrast, it is just $346 the next day, when the Triple 7 will be used. Back to Dubai on November 20, the fare is four times lower than the outbound leg. The price the tour group paid will probably make up for the directional difference in demand.
|
Dubai To Madinah: November 20* |
Madinah To Dubai: November 20** |
|---|---|
|
EK809: 2:20 pm-4:10 pm (2h 50m) |
EK810: 5:55 pm-9:25 pm (2h 30m) |
|
* Local times in Simple Flying’s new time format |
** Local times in Simple Flying’s new time format |
A Quick Look At Emirates Between Dubai & Madinah
The carrier has served the Saudi Arabian city since 2010. In the past 15 years, seven types and variants have been used: the A330-200, A340-300 (infrequently), A380 (infrequently), 777-200ER, 777-200LR, 777-300 (non-ER), and 777-300ER. The 777-300ER has been flown 73% of the time. But it is the A380 that stands out the most.
In the 12 months to September 2025, booking data shows that Emirates transported approximately 274,000 round-trip passengers between Dubai and Madinah. An estimated 105,000 (38%) were local; they only flew between the two cities. The remaining 169,000 passengers (62%) connected to another flight in the UAE hub. With about 329,000 seats for sale, it achieved a seat load factor of 83%. As always, this says relatively little in itself.
Given that Madinah is primarily about pilgrims, it is unsurprising that the top five connecting markets were Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Kuala Lumpur-Madinah was the most popular market, with the rest of the top five being Jakarta, Karachi, Dhaka, and Lahore. London Heathrow was first in Europe, but it was a tiny market for Emirates, ranking 54th overall.
Loads Down To Just 74%: Turkish Airlines’ 14 US Routes Explored
The carrier’s US traffic grew by a very healthy 12% in the past year.
Emirates’ 5 Shortest A380 Flights In November
Let’s stick with the minimum block time. Madinah has the lowest time (2h 30m), followed by Jeddah (2h 45m), Amman (2h 55m), Bangkok-Hong Kong (2h 55m; flights begin and end in Dubai), and Mumbai (3h 05m). Cairo is close (3h 10m).
Even quicker services have existed in the past, most of which even had regular A380 flights. For example, they existed to Muscat (1h 05m), Doha (1h 10m), Bahrain (1h 15m), Riyadh (1h 45m), and Kuwait (1h 45m). Of course, this only considers scheduled services, not training, positioning, or other operations.
Despite being just 2h 30m, Madinah is not the world’s shortest A380 flight in November. At 2h 20m, the world’s quickest service is operated by Asiana between Tokyo Narita and Seoul Incheon, which runs on November 7, 8, 20, 21, 27, and 28. Next is Korean Air between Seoul and Taipei, which is blocked as low as 2h 25m. This route sees the A380 on November 17 and 21.
