Each week, airlines from around the world submit schedule changes to Cirium Diio and OAG. Emirates’ latest update for December shows a new shortest Airbus A380 route. On one day only this month, it’ll deploy the superjumbo from Dubai to Medinah. It has temporarily become its new shortest service on the type.
Separately, 
Emirates has scheduled 20 round-trip A380 flights to 
Guangzhou in February. It’ll be its second double-decker route to mainland China, joining Shanghai Pudong. The type was last deployed to Guangzhou in January 2024.
Emirates’ 1-Off A380 Service To Medinah
On December 25 only, Emirates plans a double-decker operation from its 
Dubai hub to the Saudi Arabian city of Medinah. The reason seems to be the much higher demand from a big tour group traveling for Umrah. The route, served since 2010, last saw the type on November 20.
Blocked as low as 2h 30m, this route has temporarily become Emirates’ shortest service on the double-decker quadjet. The carrier’s superjumbos have occasionally been deployed to Madinah, which is, of course, famous for pilgrimages. According to Cirium Diio data, the type was used there once in 2017, twice in 2019, and now twice in 2025. Until now, the type had not previously flown there in December.
The carrier has multiple configurations of the A380, with the number of seats varying from 468 in a four-class layout to 615 in a two-class, non-first-class configuration. The carrier will use the 615-seater to Madinah. It’ll replace the non-first-class, 421-seat Boeing 777-300ER on this one-off service.
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Dubai To Medinah (December 25 Only); Local Times* |
Medinah To Dubai (December 25 Only); Local Times** |
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EK809: 2:20 pm-4:10 pm (2h 50m) |
EK810: 5:55 pm-9:25 pm (2h 30m) |
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* Shown in Simple Flying’s new time format |
** Shown in Simple Flying’s new time format |
Emirates’ 5 Shortest A380 Flights In December
Block time is measured as chocks-off-to-chocks-on. It is what’s listed in booking engines and in schedules. To account for slot possession, winds, etc., it usually varies depending on the direction of each route. As the table shows, the A380 from Medinah back to Dubai is timed at just 2h 30m.
Schedule analysis shows that the next-quickest service is Jeddah back to Dubai (a minimum of 2h 45m). Amman back to the UAE is third (2h 55m), followed by Dubai to Mumbai (3h 05m) and Cairo back to Dubai (3h 15m). Some other routes, such as Bengaluru, nearly had a sufficiently quick time to be included—but not quite.
Etihad Airways Cuts This 8-Hour Airbus A321LR Route Before The 1st Flight
Half of the airline’s LR routes to this continent have now been axed.
Yet, It Is Not The World’s Shortest A380 Flight In December
Examining the schedule of every A380 flight scheduled for the Christmas month shows that two other routes have an even shorter block time. They’re timed at less than 2h 30m, but not by much and not for long. As always, the results may be different for other months.
Timed as low as 2h 20m, Asiana will deploy the 495-seat type between Seoul Incheon and Tokyo Narita on December 19 only. OZ101 will leave South Korea at 9:00 am and arrive in Japan at 11:20 am (2h 20m). Returning, OZ102 will depart at 1:20 pm and get back at 3:55 pm (2h 35m). Korean Air primarily uses the A380 on this airport pair, but its minimum time is 2h 30m.
Then there’s Seoul Incheon to Taipei Taoyuan, which sees Korean Air’s double-deckers on eight dates in December. On December 21 and 28 only, the minimum block time will be 2h 25m. OZ2021 will leave Incheon at 9:00 am and get to Taiwan at 11:00 am local time (3h 00m). Returning, OZ2022 will depart at 12:25—a turnaround time of just 1h 25m!—and get back at 3:50 pm local time (2h 25m).
