Emirates boosts Manchester to Dubai service.
Emirates is to offer a 3rd daily non-stop flight from Manchester to Dubai.
The airline will start the new service, operated by an Airbus A330-200 aircraft in a 3-class configuration, on 1st May 2011.
The move increases the Emirate’s capacity from Manchester Airport to Dubai by 25%.
It will become the first airline to operate 3 daily flights from Manchester to the same long haul destination.
Emirates’ vice president for the UK and Ireland Laurie Berryman said: “With the launch of a 3rd daily flight, we’ve got Manchester covered morning, noon and night, offering business and leisure travellers from the region an incredible choice of travel options to destinations across the globe.”
“We’ve already filled the additional capacity we introduced with the A380 last year and demand continues to grow on flights from Manchester to Dubai, hence this plan for further growth.”
3rd Flight to Dubai from Manchester
The third flight will leave daily from Manchester Airport at 9.40am, allowing for connections to Thailand, the Middle East and India.
Managing director of Manchester Airport Andrew Harrison said: “Since bringing the A380 to Manchester last September the route to Dubai Airport has been one of Emirates’ strongest performers and we saw a full compliment of 517 in November so we know the traffic is there and the third daily service underlines the strength of this route and the importance of the Middle East to our longer term ambitions as an airport.”
“Emirates’ operation in the North West has grown rapidly since it launched a twice-weekly service from Manchester in 1990.”
Emirates doubles flights from Dubai to Cape Town
The new service will begin from 27th March and is set to boost business and tourism.
In an attempt to strengthen its commitment to South Africa, Emirates is launching a 2nd daily flight to Cape Town. The new service aims to offer passengers more choice and flexibility as well as provide greater connectivity for onward destinations.
Richard Vaughan, Divisional Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations Worldwide said,
“South Africa and the United Arab Emirates enjoy a thriving trade and investment relationship and the launch of our second daily service to Cape Town will help boost this further by supporting new business and tourism opportunities,”
“We have seen very strong inbound and outbound demand for our South African services over the last year. This new frequency will bring one of South Africa’s leading tourist destinations within easier reach for visitors, as well as meet the needs of our South African customers for enhanced connections from Cape Town to Europe, the Far East and a host of other points across Emirates’ extensive global network,” added Vaughan.
Starting on the 27th March 2011, Emirates will provide a non-stop twice a day flight from Dubai to Cape Town. The new service will be operated by an Airbus 340-500 aircraft in a 3-class configuration consisting of 12 First Class private suites, 42 angled lie-flat beds in Business and 204 Economy Class seats.
Emirates currently serves 19 passenger and cargo destinations across the African continent. The new Cape Town frequencies will result in Emirates flying 42 times a week to its 3 South African gateways, namely Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.
Flights to Dubai will be Newcastle’s first ever scheduled long-haul route
Emirates have confirmed that they will be launching daily flights from Newcastle to Dubai later this year.
The Dubai-based airline’s new service, which takes off on 1st September 2011 will be the first ever scheduled long-haul flights to operate from Newcastle.
Emirates flight EK036 will leave Newcastle to Dubai each day at 1.40pm, arriving into Dubai International Airport just after midnight (local time) the following day. The return flight, EK035, is scheduled to leave Dubai Airport at 7.20am (local time) every day, arriving in Newcastle at just after midday.
The service will be operated by an Airbus A330-200 aircraft, with 27 business class and 251 Economy Class seats. Emirates already operates 91 non-stop flights from the UK to Dubai each week, 5 services daily from London Heathrow, 3 services per day from London Gatwick, double-daily flights from Birmingham and Manchester, and a daily connection from Glasgow.
Newcastle International airport’s chief executive, John Parkin, said:
“We are delighted that Emirates has shown such a huge vote of confidence in the region and Newcastle International airport by introducing daily services from Newcastle to Dubai. Newcastle can now offer its customers direct services to one of the most important destinations in the world and an enormous choice of destinations beyond, on one of the world’s leading airlines.”
Emirates offer an onward route network from Dubai that includes destinations in Australia and New Zealand, South-East Asia, the Far East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent.
Emirates Confident of Vienna Flights
The Airline has announced that they are confident on plans to almost double its flights to Vienna from Dubai and that they will go ahead despite a disagreement with authorities in Austria.
The claim follows a series of disputes over landing rights in countries including Germany as other flag carriers try to fight off competition from Emirates.
The dubai based airline is planning on increasing its number of flights to Vienna from Dubai Airport by 6 to bring the total number of flights to Vienna from Dubai to 13 a week from next Sunday.
Emirates confirmed that it had decided to introduce the extra flights to Vienna from Dubai in response to strong demand as they had flown more than 1 million passengers to the capital city of Austria since its flights to the city started in 2004.
Emirates has faced a number of obstacles as it expands its network and fleet. The airline clashed with Lufthansa earlier this year after the German carrier attempted to prevent Emirates from being granted landing rights at an airport in Berlin that is due to open next year. Lufthansa announced that it was concerned that Emirates had an unfair advantage with the airline flying to 4 airports in Germany, while it flies only to Dubai International Airport.
Last year, Air France tried to block Emirates and Etihad Airways from expanding their services to various cities in France. However, in January both Emirates and Etihad were given the green light by French aviation authorities for plans to increase flights to cities including Paris. Emirates has also had plans to increase its flights from Dubai to Canada blocked despite years of talks which has resulted in a diplomatic row.