Emirates has announced that it will commence a daily Airbus A380 service from Dubai to Mauritius from December 16th 2013.

The aircraft will operate as flight EK 701 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays and EK 3701 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, departing from Dubai International Airport at 03:10 and arriving in Mauritius at 09:40.

The return flight EK 702 and EK 3702 will depart Mauritius’ Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport at 18:20 and arrives in Dubai at 01:10 the next day.

The announcement of this daily service follows the special one-off A380 flight that the airline operated to Mauritius in March 2013 to celebrate the island’s 45 years of independence.

The new flight will replace one of the existing three class Boeing 777-300 services the airline currently operates to Mauritius.

This means Emirates will continue to serve the country on a double daily basis with an additional 153 seats on the route each day across First Class, Business Class and Economy Class.

“Having brought our flagship A380 aircraft to this beautiful island for the first time in March, we could see how much appeal the aircraft had for our customers on the route.

“A first among the Indian Ocean Islands, it is a matter of great pride to be able to offer this service on a daily basis from December this year”, said Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ executive vice president.

“The strategic decision to add the extra capacity is a testament to Emirates’ on-going commitment to supporting the tourism sector of Mauritius.

“There has been growing demand to support leisure traffic to the region, and the extra capacity will serve multiple destinations across our network in Europe, Middle East and Asia, with seamless connectivity through our Dubai hub,” added Antinori.

Emirates has been operating to Mauritius since 2002 with three flights per week and in December 2012 commenced a double daily service due to continued growing demand.

Emirates currently has 35 A380’s in its fleet which is the world’s largest.