Where can you fly on the Airbus A380?

With more and more Airbus A380 superjumbos being delivered to the world's airlines, the A380 has become a firm passenger favourite. The seating is often upgraded from what's offered on Boeing 747 and 777 aircraft and you'll enjoy a significantly quieter ride.

Not only do Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Emirates all fly the A380 from Australia -- through to Singapore, London and Dubai, for starters -- business travellers are increasingly able to pick flights on one of the mammoth planes abroad.

Lufthansa, Air France and Emirates have been some of the most recent airlines to receive brand new planes, so here's an update where you can fly them overseas.

Note that we're seeing a clear trend of airlines using the planes on the very longest-haul flights possible -- about 12 hours from Europe to San Francisco, for example, and not much less than that from Europe to China.

Dubai to Shanghai, on Emirates

Apart from Qantas, Emirates is the airline whose A380s will be most familiar to Australian travellers, since they fly to Sydney and on to Auckland. 

The airline is well on its way to receiving all 90 of its ordered A380s -- nearly half of the whole superjumbo order book at Airbus -- with 15 aircraft in service.

Emirates' latest A380 route is Dubai-Shanghai Pudong, three days a week. The airline also flies from Dubai to London, Sydney (and on to Auckland), Toronto, Seoul, Paris, Jeddah, Beijing, Manchester, Hong Kong (and on to Bangkok) and New York.

Frankfurt to Beijing, on Lufthansa

The German national airline is boosting its A380 flights to Beijing to a daily service as of this week. Previously, Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday flights had been flown using a Boeing 747.

Lufthansa has six A380s, which it flies to Beijing, Johannesburg and New York, and also used the aircraft on flights to Tokyo before the devastating Tohoku earthquake.

Frankfurt to Miami, on Lufthansa

Later in the northern hemisphere's summer season, Lufthansa will also replace its Boeing 747 flights to Miami with A380 superjumbos. 

Paris to San Francisco, on Air France

The French carrier is upgrading its SFO flights to the A380 between June 6 and September 4. Air France will be the the second A380 operator at the airport -- which recently refurbished its Terminal 2, although Air France is still in Terminal 1.

Air France uses its four A380s on routes from Paris to New York and Johannesburg, with Montreal starting in April and Washington DC starting in June. The airline has withdrawn the A380 from flights to Tokyo until May.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.