Despite mostly being in the shadow of newer small twin-engine aircraft for years, the Airbus A380 is enjoying an impressive comeback this winter. Schedule data from Cirium for November 2025 through February 2026, analyzed by Simple Flying route analysts, helps demonstrate how heavily a handful of trunk routes still rely on the double-decker aircraft, with Emirates and Qatar Airways using the type to concentrate huge volumes of capacity into their main hubs. Measured by the number of flights, these seven city pairs alone account for thousands of Airbus A380 movements and many billions of available seat miles over four months.

Unsurprisingly, Dubai continues to dominate the rankings. Six of the seven busiest Airbus A380 routes this winter touch Emirates’ home base, linking it to major European capitals, regional gateways in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as some of Asia’s most important tourism and connecting markets. The outlier on this list is Qatar Airways’ long-haul service from Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH), its principal hub, to Bangkok (BKK), helping underline how both Gulf superconnectors continue to see value in the Airbus A380 on high-density corridors. From short religious shuttles to long-haul intercontinental links, these routes help provide a clear snapshot of how airlines are deploying the world’s largest passenger aircraft, where capacity brings the most value.

7

Dubai To Jeddah

Total Flights: 360

The seventh entry on this list goes to the short but intense connection between Dubai International Airport (DXB) and King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED) in Jeddah. In both directions, Emirates plans on operating around 360 flights between November 2025 and February 2026, offering roughly 368,000 seats and almost 390 million available seat miles on a route that primarily caters to religious pilgrimage-related demand. This is a remarkable amount of capacity to be allocated to such a short sector, reflecting how strategically important Jeddah is in Emirates’ regional network.

Traffic is ultimately driven by a blend of religious, visiting friends and relatives (VFR), and other related labor flows, alongside connections to the wider Emirates network. Jeddah is the main gateway to Mecca, so demand spikes in the city around school holidays, Ramadan, and Hajj-related pilgrimage peaks. The Airbus A380 helps the airline consolidate large volumes into these relatively limited slot windows.

At the same time, passengers from the western provinces of Saudi Arabia rely on the route to connect through Dubai to destinations all across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The Airbus A380’s dense seating layout means that Emirates can keep unit costs low on a relatively short stage length while still offering First and Business Class capacity on a market that increasingly expects a premium product even on sub-two-hour services​​​​​​.

6

Dubai To Cairo

Total Flights: 360

Next up on our list is another Middle Eastern heavyweight service, connecting Emirates’ Dubai hub to Cairo International Airport (CAI). On this sector, the carrier schedules 720 Airbus A380 flights over four months, splitting capacity evenly between both directions. This translates into around 360,000 seats and more than 540 million available seat miles (ASMs), making Cairo one of Emirates’ largest Airbus A380 destinations in Africa and the Middle East.

Cairo combines several demand drivers that justify the Airbus A380. The aircraft has a huge local market in its own right, with strong business, governmental, and diaspora traffic between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. This route also serves as a key connecting link for Egyptians traveling throughout the Gulf, or beyond to destinations in India, Southeast Asia, and Australasia. It is also a good entry funnel for visitors coming to Egyptian tourism hotspots that may want to travel to Dubai.

The Airbus A380 allows Emirates to absorb this demand while minimizing frequencies, something valuable in congested airspace and at busy hub banks in Dubai. On board, high-density seating helps keep fares competitive in a price-sensitive market. Nonetheless, the aircraft’s multi-class configuration still caters to corporate and diplomatic travelers who value premium cabins, especially on overnight departures and during peak holiday seasons.

5

Dubai To Paris

Total Flights: 360

Next on our list is Emirates’ route from Dubai International Airport (DXB) to Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG), which also racks up 360 flights in each direction between November and February. In both directions, this means that more than 372,000 seats are on offer while these services generate 1.21 billion available seat miles, underlining Paris’ status as one of Emirates’ core gateways into the European market.

This route blends strong origin-and-destination demand with substantial flows of connecting traffic. Paris is undeniably a magnet for leisure traffic originating in the Gulf, India, Asia, and Australasia, while French travelers extensively use Dubai as a one-stop link to destinations across the Indian Ocean, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. The Airbus A380 is particularly well-suited for these kinds of services.

The distance of this route is long enough to exploit the aircraft’s operating efficiency, but demand is concentrated during key periods of the day, so that the use of an Airbus A380 makes a lot of sense. High premium-cabin uptake from corporate and high-spending leisure travelers supports the deployment of the Airbus A380’s sizable Business and First Class cabins.

4

Dubai To Manchester

Total Flights: 360

In fourth place on our list is a route from Dubai to Manchester, a service which highlights just how international the Airbus A380 has made regional British airports. Emirates is scheduled to operate 360 Airbus A380 flights between Dubai and Manchester this winter period, offering around 408,600 seats to the market and generating around 1.44 billion available seat miles. This makes Manchester Emirates’ busiest Airbus A380 station in the United Kingdom outside of London.

Demand for travel to and from Manchester is broad-based. Manchester serves a huge catchment in northern England, as well as parts of Wales and Scotland, so that the route carries leisure travelers heading to Dubai and beyond, with business traffic tied to the region’s diverse economy and substantial flows of those visiting friends and relatives.

The Airbus A380’s high seat count allows Emirates to concentrate capacity into a limited number of daily frequencies while maintaining a full range of cabin options, including First Class. This helps support premium demand.

3

Doha To Bangkok

Total Flights: 380

Breaking Dubai’s near-monopoly on this list is a nonstop service between Bangkok and Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) that is operated by Qatar Airways. In both directions, the carrier plans around 380 services this upcoming winter, adding more than 390,000 seats and around 1.28 billion available seat miles on this sector. This amount of volume makes Bangkok the busiest Airbus A380 destination for Qatar Airways this upcoming winter.

Bangkok is the perfect fit for the Airbus A380 within the Qatar Airways hub-and-spoke model, with this route serving huge two-way tourism flows between Thailand and Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. It also accounts for growing premium demand from business travelers and high-spending leisure passengers. The airline concentrates many seats on a limited number of daily departures, allowing the carrier to comfortably align Bangkok arrivals with its tight system of connecting banks at Doha.

This allows the airline to maximize onward connectivity to cities like London, Paris, and Johannesburg. The Airbus A380’s large premium cabins are also a draw on this route, which sees heavy demand for lie-flat business class seats on overnight eastbound and westbound flight legs. For Qatar Airways, Bangkok to Doha is a textbook example of how the Airbus A380 can still shine on thick, time-sensitive long-haul markets.

2

Dubai To Bangkok

Total Flights: 480

Sitting in sixth place is Emirates’ nonstop service from Dubai International Airport (DXB) to Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) in Bangkok, Thailand. This is one of Emirates’ archetypal Airbus A380 leisure-oriented trunk routes. Throughout the upcoming winter period, Emirates schedules 480 Airbus A380 flights in each direction, offering around 535,600 seats to the carrier alongside roughly 1.63 billion available seat miles (ASMs) on this 3,050-mile link. This works out to close to eight Airbus A380 movements per day across the city pair, underlining Bangkok’s importance in the Emirates global network.

Bangkok is both a huge origin-and-destination market and a powerful connecting hub. Many travelers from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa use Dubai as a one-stop gateway to Thailand, while Bangkok-originating passengers connect through Dubai to cities across Europe and the Americas. The Airbus A380’s massive Economy cabin helps absorb peak seasonal demand during northern-winter holiday periods and Thailand’s own festival seasons, allowing Emirates to offer attractive fares while keeping unit costs exceptionally low.

At the same time, a substantial Business and First Class offering caters to honeymooners, premium leisure travelers, and corporate traffic, especially on overnight flight legs. This route’s combination of strong year-round loads, high seasonal peaks, and balanced demand in both directions makes it one of the most natural homes for the Emirates Airbus A380 fleet.

1

Dubai To London

Total Flights: 720

Sitting in undisputed first place on our list is the nonstop service operated by Emirates from Dubai to London Heathrow Airport (LHR). On this service, Emirates operates 1,440 Airbus A380 flights on a narrow corridor between two of the world’s largest business travel markets.

Here, the carrier offers more than 714,000 seats, which generate around 2.44 billion available seat miles, making it the busiest Airbus A380 city pair worldwide by a large margin. The route links two constrained global hubs, combining high-yield corporate and financial traffic.

The carrier maintains strong UK-UAE leisure traffic flows with heavy connecting volumes all across South Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the Middle East. With Heathrow slots scarce, Emirates relies on the Airbus A380 to upgauge capacity while preserving prime slots to showcase its full flagship onboard product.