DUBAI, UAE, 6 September 2024: Emirates has rolled out a new A380 livery dedicated to raising awareness of the Emirates Airline Foundation’s humanitarian work, which has transformed the lives of thousands of children worldwide.

The A380 livery’s design is inspired by the playful elements of the Emirates Airline Foundation’s logo, incorporating the theme of children’s artwork with pastel stars in light green, warm orange, baby blue and soft pink across the fuselage, rounded off with a bold message that encapsulates the Foundation’s mission — ‘Help to support children in need’. All four engine cowls of the Emirates A380 have also been adorned in the warm orange hue, symbolising a better future for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children that the Foundation supports. Watch the livery come to life here

The new livery takes the airline’s philanthropic message to the skies. The colourful design premiered to the public on an A380 flight last week to Johannesburg, South Africa, where the Foundation supports two important projects.

Operating under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman & Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group, the Emirates Airline Foundation is a non-profit charity organisation that provides humanitarian, philanthropic aid and essential services for children. Its aim is to create meaningful, sustainable, and lasting impact in the communities that it serves.

Over the last twenty years, The Emirates Airline Foundation has supported over 50 projects, partnering with numerous community-based organisations and NGOs to deepen their work and serve the critical developmental needs of children for safe housing, food and medical care, and empowerment through education and capacity development, irrespective of geography, background, political associations or religion. Funding for projects is made possible by the generous donations made onboard or online by Emirates customers, donors, and employees.

The projects supported by the Foundation have mainly been focused on Emirates’ destinations, where the airline’s employee volunteers can actively donate their time and oversee their management.

The Foundation currently supports 14 NGOs in 9 countries, which includes Emirates-CHES Home, a safe haven for 100 abandoned HIV-positive children who regularly receive medical support and care; IMMPACT Girls Education Project in rural India which provides education through community-based learning centres to 5,000 girls last year and face-to-face training sessions for almost 1,500 teachers; Prithipura Communities in Sri Lanka supporting 240 infants, children and young adults with disabilities through specialist care, education, vocational training and employment opportunities; Virlanie Foundation in the Philippines where funding from the Emirates Airline Foundation helps reach out to abandoned, abused, exploited, neglected and orphaned children. The Foundation also helped to bring the Emirates Friendship Hospital in Bangladesh to life for over a decade, and healthcare has been made available to over 650,000 people living in poverty.

In Kenya, the Foundation supports three organisations:  The Little Prince Nursery and Primary School, providing holistic education and rehabilitation for children, and the Foundation has supported its meal programme since 2014; Alfajiri Street Kids, which offers a safe space and a range of programmes focusing on art therapy for more than 200 children; Starehe Boys’ Centre which delivers academic support for underprivileged boys and includes a high school and multiple tertiary programmes. The Foundation sponsors four-year scholarships for 10 boys studying at the school.  

In South Africa and Zimbabwe, the Foundation’s focus on holistic education and medical care includes Fikelela Children’s Centre, which is committed to serving children afflicted with HIV/AIDS. The Foundation supports the running costs of the centre. It has also funded new facilities to help care for and house 40 young children, including infants who have been neglected or abandoned because of the virus. Singakwenza aims to support early childhood education for low-income communities in South Africa, and the Foundation has provided training for 71 practitioners to create learning opportunities for 970 young children. St Marcellin’s Children’s Village cares for orphaned and homeless children in Zimbabwe, many with physical disabilities, blindness and HIV, and over 70 children are currently under the care of the organisation with the Foundation’s support.

In Brazil, the Saint Rita de Cassia Orphanage houses 96 orphaned and abandoned girls in Rio de Janeiro and provides shelter, education and care from 4 to 14 years. Externato Sao Francisco de Assis is a non-profit that cares for underprivileged children, often from single-parent families and operates a school with more than 70 pre-school students.

In its home base of Dubai, the Foundation supports SAFE Centre for Autism, a facility that offers a safe and inclusive environment for children struggling with complex learning difficulties.

In the last financial year, 20 other NGOs have also benefited from the Foundation, with over 500 flight tickets issued on Emirates to volunteers conducting global medical, engineering and education missions. Missions include Virginia Children’s Connection to perform plastic surgery, cleft lip repair, and burn care for more than 275 patients in India; World Wide Smiles (FWWS) travelled to Uganda to offer dental healthcare; Global Smile Foundation journeyed to Lebanon to perform surgery on children born with cleft palate and lip; Operation of Hope Worldwide sent 46 medical professionals from various countries to perform transformative surgeries in Zimbabwe for conditions such as cleft lips and severe burn injuries; and Australian Doctors for Africa went to Ethiopia to conduct intensive training in orthopaedics and wound management.

The Emirates Airline Foundation is regulated by the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department in Dubai (IACAD) and is licensed by the Government of Dubai.To find out more about the Foundation’s active projects, or if you would like to make a donation of cash or Emirates Skywards Miles, visit: www.emiratesairlinefoundation.org

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 5 September 2024: Emirates took to the skies last week to celebrate its longstanding and ongoing commitment to South Africa with the country’s first-ever A380 flypast.

The flying display celebrated the return of the second daily A380 service on the Dubai-Johannesburg route from 1 September.

To add to the score, the remarkable low-level aerial showcase also marked Emirates’ first flypast in Africa and the first international airline to execute such a feat in South Africa.

Honouring its shared love for rugby with over 62,000 enthusiastic spectators, Emirates flew the world’s largest commercial passenger aircraft over Emirates Airline Park just before kick-off of the much-anticipated Springboks vs All Blacks test match. 

Flying just 500 feet above the ground, the iconic Emirates double-decker aircraft saluted rugby and aviation fans in its latest signature livery.

The Emirates A380 took off from O.R. Tambo International Airport at 1600, travelling at 140 kts, reaching the stadium at 1658, perfectly timed to follow South Africa and New Zealand’s national anthems. 

The impressive aerial feat follows months of thorough and cross-functional planning between stakeholders, including multiple teams at Emirates, the South African Civil Aviation Authority, Airports Company South Africa, Emirates pilots, Flight Operation Managers, and Air Traffic Controllers working together with the Emirates Lions team. The teams worked together across every element of the aerial display, considering air traffic patterns at different times of the day with different weather and wind conditions.

UAE National Captain Mubarak Al Mheiri, A380 Deputy Chief Pilot commanded the flight, joined by Captain Khalid Binsultan and Captain Abdalla Al Hammadi, both Technical Pilots for the Airbus A380 and Captain Richard Fiess, A380 Captain. Captain Mubarak has flown with Emirates for 19 years and has completed over 7,200 hours in the cockpit of the iconic A380. 

He has commanded similar flypasts for Emirates, including UAE National Day celebrations for the past four years and headlining the commercial aircraft flypast formation at the 2023 Dubai Air Show. He also participated in the iconic flight promoting Expo 2020, which saw an A380 fly around an Emirates Cabin Crew at the very top of the Burj Khalifa; the unprecedented formation flight with the Jetman team back in 2015; and with the Red Arrows in 2022.

The flypast also marked the return of Emirates’ second A380 service on the Dubai-Johannesburg route, enhancing customer choice and travel options with Emirates’ iconic onboard products and world-class service. 

EK761 departs Dubai at 0405 and lands in Johannesburg at 1015. The return flight, EK762, departs Johannesburg at 1325 and touches down in Dubai at 2345, perfectly timed for onward connections to key destinations in the Far East, Europe, and the Middle East.

Emirates is one of the world’s biggest supporters of rugby. In South Africa, Emirates’ investment in the sport is headlined by its steadfast title sponsorship of the Emirates Lions, including naming rights of the team’s home stadium, Emirates Airline Park. The airline also sponsors the action-packed Cape Town Sevens, a regular fixture on the Sevens World Series calendar and one of the most popular live sporting events in South Africa, regularly drawing over 100,000 spectators.

Globally, Emirates has been at the centre of the action from grassroots to professional leagues as the sponsor of the Rugby World Cup since 2007, and it plans to have a prominent presence at the upcoming 2027 World Cup in Australia.

Firmly established as a long-term partner of South African aviation, tourism, and trade, Emirates has served the market for 29 years, connecting over 20 million travellers to/from South Africa with more than 140 destinations on its vast global network via Dubai. The airline serves customers travelling to and from South Africa with 42 weekly flights to Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, with additional connectivity to regional points across the country offered by its codeshare and interline partners South African Airways, Airlink, Cemair, and FlySafair.

www.emirates.com