Emirates is the world's largest operator of the A380 with 51 currently flying and has a further 89 of the planes on order.

"We believe that with the way the world's population is developing we can operate more A380s," Thierry Antinori said at an event at Frankfurt airport to mark the first use of an A380 on the Frankfurt-Dubai route.

But while Emirates has said it would like to see a revamped version of the A380, Airbus has said there are no plans to do so at present.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Harro ten Wolde)