
On Jun. 6, 2011, the first (long awaited) Emirates Airbus 380 landed at Rome Fiumicino. It was a one-off trip to celebrate Fiumicino airport’s 50th anniversary, along with 150th anniversary of Italian unification. The Super Jumbo (A6-EDJ) replaced the usual B777 scheduled service on the Dubai-Rome route: EK 97 departing Dubai at 08.55 LT and arriving in Rome at 13.15LT (the A380 actually landed at 13.30LT). The flight left Fiumicino at 17.03 (scheduled time 16.45LT) with an expected arrival time in Dubai at 00.40LT on Jun. 7.
Emirates had initially planned the upgrade of the EK097/098 DBX-FCO-DBX daily flights from the Boeing B777-300 (B773) to the Airbus A380-800 (A388) in Dec. 2009.
Looks like the EK98 had to perform some orbits before landing at Dubai: