Category Archives: Emirates Airline

Emirates to reintroduce nonstop Airbus A380 services to Auckland and Kuala Lumpur in December

Emirates has made this announcement:

As travellers kick-start the search for their next holiday, Emirates is announcing that it will restore its nonstop Airbus A380 services to and from Auckland and Kuala Lumpur, starting on December 1, 2022.

The airline currently operates to both cities with a linked Boeing 777-300ER service, which makes a stop in Kuala Lumpur before continuing on to Auckland. The start of A380 flights will see both cities delinked and served with direct services to and from Dubai. The latest update to the airline’s schedule will offer customers greater levels of flexibility and much needed seat availability. The new services will also provide more opportunities to travel across the Emirates network with reduced transit times after the delinking of services, and faster connections to and from Europe, the Middle East, South Asia as well as Africa.

The nonstop services between Dubai and Auckland will also reclaim its title as the longest route on the Emirates network, clocking in 14,200 km, in addition to being one of the world’s longest non-stop scheduled commercial flights.

Emirates’ direct flight EK448 from Dubai to Auckland will depart at 10:05hrs and arrives at 11:05hrs the next day. The return flight will depart Auckland at 21:15hrs and arrives in Dubai at 05:25hrs the next day. All times are local.

Emirates’ A380 service to Kuala Lumpur, EK 346 will depart Dubai at 0330hrs, landing at 1435hrs. EK 343 will depart Kuala Lumpur at 0145hrs, arriving in Dubai at 0505hrs.

The reintroduction of the airline’s flagship A380 to Auckland and Kuala Lumpur will provide more choice for tourists looking to discover these exciting destinations, and also offers travellers a chance to experience the A380’s signature products and services across all classes. New Zealand is ramping up its visibility with a global campaign in key markets to encourage more visitors to come and re-live the country’s incredible experiences and stunning natural attractions. To promote Malaysia as a unique travel destination, Emirates recently signed a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) with the Malaysia Tourism Board to develop inbound visitor traffic into the country from key markets across the airline’s network.

The Emirates A380 experience remains highly sought after by travellers for its spacious and comfortable cabins, and signature products that offer travellers the best experiences in the sky like the Onboard Lounge, First Class suites and Shower Spa. The A380 experience is always rounded off by award-winning hospitality, regional culinary creations and authentic tastes, and the airline’s award-winning inflight entertainment system, ice, with more than 5,000 channels of on-demand entertainment at every customer’s fingertips.

The airline is accelerating the deployment of its flagship A380 aircraft in line with growing global demand for air travel, with 32 destinations currently being served on a scheduled basis, and more to be announced in the coming weeks and months.

Emirates aircraft photo gallery:

Emirates and Aegean to codeshare

Emirates is activating a new codeshare partnership today with AEGEAN, allowing its customers to benefit from increased connectivity to eight domestic Greek points via Athens, using a single ticket. Emirates will place its code on AEGEAN operated flights, providing customers with a convenient and seamless booking experience as well as one consistent baggage policy, to popular destinations: Kerkyra, Chania, Irakleion, Mikonos, Thira, Rhodes, Thessaloniki and Alexandropoulos. Under the codeshare agreement, AEGEAN will also place its code on Emirates-operated flights between Dubai and Athens for their customers to benefit from smooth connections to Dubai and onward.

Starting October 2022, Emirates and AEGEAN will further increase their joint codeshare network to include eight more European regional routes via Athens, including Bucharest, Belgrade and Naples, among others, as well as westwards on Emirates’ flights to New York Newark from Athens, and New York JFK from Milan. Emirates currently serves Athens with 12 weekly flights operated by a Boeing 777. These additional codeshare routes will be subject to receiving the necessary regulatory approvals.

Through its codeshare agreements with more than 26 carriers, two rail partners as well as 110 interline partners worldwide, Emirates offers its customers truly global connectivity across 6 continents.

Emirates enhances its inflight customer experience

Emirates has made this announcement:

Priding itself on a brand promise of ‘Fly Better’, Emirates is investing over US$ 2 billion to enhance its inflight customer experience, including a massive programme to retrofit over 120 aircraft with the latest interiors, plus an array of other service improvements across all cabins starting in 2022.

Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “While others respond to industry pressures with cost cuts, Emirates is flying against the grain and investing to deliver ever better experiences to our customers. Through the pandemic we’ve continued to launch new services and initiatives to ensure our customers travel with the assurance and ease, including digital initiatives to improve customer experiences on the ground. Now we’re rolling out a series of intensive programmes to take Emirates’ signature inflight experiences to the next level.”

Some of Emirates’ latest initiatives include: elevated meal choices, a brand new vegan menu, a ‘cinema in the sky’ experience, cabin interior upgrades, sustainable choices and a generous approach to the little touches that make travel memorable.

Starting from August, Emirates’ passengers can look forward to:

New Inspirations, New Menus: An award-winning team of chefs, a world-class catering team and a wide variety of suppliers have been assembled to design and deliver the best fine dining experience in the sky. New menus will be served on select Emirates routes in First Class, featuring dishes such as pan-fried salmon trout with moqueca sauce and creole rice, roasted duck breast with orange thyme jus, steamed broccolini and fondant potatoes. New menus will also be introduced to Business and Economy on the 1^st of September.

Purposefully Vegan Choices: Emirates’ new vegan menu is carefully curated to cater to the growing numbers of customers pursuing this thoughtful lifestyle. Vegans, or anyone interested in a delicious and healthy plant-based meal, will enjoy handcrafted gourmet dishes such as pan-roasted king oyster mushrooms, flavoursome jackfruit biryani and sliced kohlrabi garnished with burnt orange. Desserts are a decadent affair with choices of chocolate truffle cake with hazelnut, pistachio and gold leaf, or green grape tart adorned with candied rose petals, vanilla custard, and berry compote glistening with yuzu pearls.

The Champagne and Caviar Experience: Emirates’ First Class experience, always a benchmark for service excellence, has been upped a notch in 2022. Customers can now savour unlimited portions of Persian caviar as part of the ‘dine on demand’ service, with an exquisite pairing of the world-renowned Dom Perignon vintage champagne. Emirates is the only airline with an exclusive agreement to offer the luxury brand on-board.

Cinema in the Sky: First Class customers can create a memorable movie moment on-board by ordering cinema snacks as they enjoy the 5,000 channels on Emirates’ ice inflight entertainment system. The cinema snack menu includes moreish classics such as lobster rolls, juicy sliders, edamame, and salted popcorn, and can be ordered on demand. All passengers can also curate their own ice experience before their flight, simply by browsing and pre-selecting movies or TV shows on the Emirates app, which can then be synced to ice the moment they board, maximising the seamless travel experience.

Farm to Fork – Sustainable Supply Chain: Emirates’ customers departing on flights from Dubai can begin crunching on fresh greens harvested from Bustanica, the world’s largest vertical farm and newly-opened US$40 million joint venture investment through Emirates Flight Catering. Emirates is continuing to invest in sustainable operations and supply chains, seeking local food suppliers and farms wherever possible to serve the freshest produce on board.

Specialised Hospitality Training for Cabin Crew: Emirates has partnered with Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, one of the world’s top hospitality management schools, to craft the Emirates Hospitality strategy and encourage inspiring customer experiences. Emirates Cabin Crew have already begun engaging in intensive training programmes focused on delivering the four service pillars: Excellence, Attentiveness, Innovation and Passion.

Upgraded Cabin Interiors in all Classes: The most significant investment is an extensive and record-breaking refurbishment of the aircraft fleet interiors, where cabins will be retrofitted with new or reupholstered seats, new panelling, flooring and other cabin features. Benefitting all Emirates passengers, every cabin class will be refreshed and new Premium Economy cabins installed. After the retrofit, Emirates will have a total of 120 aircraft offering Premium Economy seats – the only airline in the region to offer this cabin class, and enhanced interiors and features across all other cabins. With its first aircraft scheduled to roll into the Emirates Engineering Centre for retrofitting in November, planning work and trials have begun in earnest.

Additionally, Emirates confirms there will be more announcements about new products and services in the near future.

Emirates aircraft photo gallery:

Emirates adds more flights to Mauritius

Emirates has announced plans to up frequencies to Mauritius starting October 1, 2022. The additional evening frequency which will operate up until January 31, 2023 is in response to increased travel demand to and from Mauritius, and will boost connectivity to the island nation.

Emirates’ third-daily flight to Mauritius will operate with the following schedule (all timings local): EK 709 departs Dubai at 22:10 hrs and arrives in Mauritius at 04:45 hrs. EK 710 leaves Mauritius at 06:30 hrs, arriving in Dubai at 13:05 hrs.

The third-daily flight will boost seat capacity to and from Mauritius by approximately 35%, catering to the surge in demand and providing added support to the tourism industry during one of the busiest travel seasons. The added frequency supplements the existing double-daily Airbus A380 services and will also offer customers travelling to Mauritius with more flexibility when planning their trip with the choice of an early morning arrival at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport in addition to the existing EK 0701 service which arrives mid-morning, and EK 0703 that arrives early evening. Travellers departing Mauritius will also have ample choice to connect safely and seamlessly to Dubai, and through Dubai onwards to Emirates’ global network of 130 destinations. All three daily flights offer code sharing with Air Mauritius to allow greater access and a seamless travel experience to and from the island nation.

Emirates started operations to Mauritius in September 2002 with three weekly flights and currently is in its 20th year of operations to the Indian Ocean destination.

Emirates has been building up connectivity in response to growing customer demand on the back of rising travel confidence and the easing of international travel protocols. Boosting connectivity and expanding its Tel Aviv schedule with a second daily flight, and recently resuming passenger services to London Stansted, Emirates has sufficiently restored its pre-pandemic frequencies as travellers return to the skies.

Top Copyright Photo: Emirates Airline Airbus A380-861 A6-EVK (msn 260) (Journey to the Future) IAD (Brian McDonough). Image: 958444.

Emirates aircraft slide show:

Emirates expands its Tel Aviv schedule with second daily flight

Emirates made this announcement:

A little over a month since it inaugurated its first flight, Emirates has announced plans to boost connectivity and increase travel options for customers flying between Dubai and Tel Aviv with a second daily flight, starting 30 October 2022. The additional morning frequency is in response to high demand for travel to/from Israel, and builds on the success of Emirates’ existing operation, as the airline reaffirms its commitment to growing its presence in the country.

The second daily flight will be served by the modern and efficient Emirates Boeing 777-300ER in a three class configuration. The new schedule will operate as follows: EK 933 departs Dubai at 0815hrs arriving in Tel Aviv at 0950hrs. EK 934 leaves Tel Aviv at 1150hrs, arriving in Dubai at 1650hrs*.

The second flight provides Emirates customers from Israel with additional travel options to Dubai, as well as convenient onwards connections to popular destinations. The new flight also unlocks enhanced connectivity to a multitude of points within Emirates’ global network such as Auckland, Brisbane, Perth, Bali, Seoul, and Singapore, as well as points across India, among others, making it easier for Israeli travellers to discover new places with shorter transit times.

The service will also provide customers traveling to Israel with more flexibility when planning their trip with the choice of a morning arrival at Ben Gurion airport, in addition to the existing EK931 service which arrives in the evening. Customers can also take advantage of Emirates’ partnership with flydubai when planning their travel, which includes a robust schedule of multiple daily codeshare flights.

Travellers flying with Emirates can enjoy the best experience in the sky, with thoughtful product touches and exceptional service provided by its multinational cabin crew. Customers across every class will be able to enjoy Emirates’ ice entertainment system with over 5,000 channels of on-demand entertainment to choose from, including numerous Hebrew language movies and programmes, regionally inspired menus complemented by a wide selection of beverages, as well as specially prepared kosher meals, available for pre-order on all flights.

Emirates’ second daily flight between Dubai and Tel Aviv will also provide another 20 tonnes of cargo belly-hold capacity for businesses, further opening global trade lanes through enhanced import and export opportunities.

Tickets can be purchased on emirates.com, Emirates Sales Offices, via travel agents or through online travel agents.

Customers connecting through Dubai are encouraged to check the latest travel guidelines and ensure they meet the travel requirements of their final destination.

*All timings are local.

Emirates aircraft photo gallery:

Emirates backs down, now agrees to cap LHR sales

Emirates issued this statement:

The President of Emirates Airline and the CEO of Heathrow Airport held a constructive meeting on July 15. Emirates agreed the airline was ready and willing to work with the airport to remediate the situation over the next 2 weeks, to keep demand and capacity in balance and provide passengers with a smooth and reliable journey through Heathrow this summer.

Emirates has capped further sales on its flights out of Heathrow until mid-August to assist Heathrow in its resource ramp up, and is working to adjust capacity.

In the meantime, Emirates flights from Heathrow operate as scheduled and ticketed passengers may travel as booked.

Emirates aircraft photo gallery:

Emirates statement on operations at London Heathrow

Emirates values our partnerships with airport stakeholders across our network with whom we engage continuously, and collaboratively, to secure our flight operations and ensure minimal customer disruption, particularly over the peak travel months.

It is therefore highly regrettable that LHR last evening gave us 36 hours to comply with capacity cuts, of a figure that appears to be plucked from thin air. Their communications not only dictated the specific flights on which we should throw out paying passengers, but also threatened legal action for non-compliance.

This is entirely unreasonable and unacceptable, and we reject these demands.

At London Heathrow airport (LHR), our ground handling and catering – run by dnata, part of the Emirates Group – are fully ready and capable of handling our flights. So the crux of the issue lies with the central services and systems which are the responsibility of the airport operator.

Emirates is a key and steadfast operator at LHR, having reinstated 6 daily A380 flights since October 2021. From our past 10 months of regularly high seat loads, our operational requirements cannot be a surprise to the airport.

Now, with blatant disregard for consumers, they wish to force Emirates to deny seats to tens of thousands of travellers who have paid for, and booked months ahead, their long-awaited package holidays or trips to see their loved ones. And this, during the super peak period with the upcoming UK holidays, and at a time when many people are desperate to travel after 2 years of pandemic restrictions.

Emirates believes in doing the right thing by our customers. However, re-booking the sheer numbers of potentially impacted passengers is impossible with all flights running full for the next weeks, including at other London airports and on other airlines. Adding to the complexity, 70% of our customers from LHR are headed beyond Dubai to see loved ones in far flung destinations, and it will be impossible to find them new onward connections at short notice.

Moving some of our passenger operations to other UK airports at such short notice is also not realistic. Ensuring ground readiness to handle and turnaround a widebody long-haul aircraft with 500 passengers onboard is not as simple as finding a parking spot at a mall.

The bottomline is, the LHR management team are cavalier about travellers and their airline customers. All the signals of a strong travel rebound were there, and for months, Emirates has been publicly vocal about the matter. We planned ahead to get to a state of readiness to serve customers and travel demand, including rehiring and training 1,000 A380 pilots in the past year.

LHR chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest. Now faced with an “airmageddon” situation due to their incompetence and non-action, they are pushing the entire burden – of costs and the scramble to sort the mess – to airlines and travellers.

The shareholders of London Heathrow should scrutinise the decisions of the LHR management team.

Given the tremendous value that the aviation community generates for the UK economy and communities, we welcome the action taken by the UK Department for Transport and Civil Aviation Authority to seek information from LHR on their response plans, systems resilience, and to explain the seemingly arbitrary cap of 100,000 daily passengers. Considering LHR handled 80.9 million passengers annually in 2019, or a daily average of 219,000, the cap represents greater than a 50% cut at a time when LHR claims to have 70% of ground handling resources in place.

Until further notice, Emirates plans to operate as scheduled to and from LHR.

Emirates aircraft photo gallery:

Air Canada and Emirates form a strategic partnership

Air Canada and Emirates today announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement that will create more options for customers when travelling on the carriers’ networks while also enhancing the customer experience throughout the journey.

Air Canada and Emirates intend to establish a codeshare relationship later in 2022 that will offer enhanced consumer travel choices for Air Canada customers to travel to the United Arab Emirates and to destinations beyond Dubai. Emirates customers will also enjoy an enhanced travel experience when travelling to Toronto or to key destinations across the Air Canada network. Customers will have the ability to book connecting travel between both airlines’ networks with the ease of a single ticket, seamless connectivity at the carriers’ respective global hubs and baggage transfers to their final destinations.

“As we continue pursuing our strategy of expanding our global reach in response to growing opportunities in VFR markets (Visiting Friends and Relatives) that serve Canada’s large multicultural communities, we are very pleased to form a strategic partnership with Emirates, a highly respected flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates with a hub in the vibrant city of Dubai. This strategic agreement will create network synergies, and Air Canada customers will have additional, convenient options when travelling between Canada and the United Arab Emirates as well as destinations beyond Dubai” said Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer at Air Canada. “We look forward to introducing Air Canada codeshare service on key Emirates flights, as well as adding the EK code on select Air Canada flights, and welcoming Emirates customers on our services later this year.”

Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “This is a significant partnership that will enable our customers access to even more destinations in Canada and the Americas, via our Toronto and US gateways. It also opens up many new route combinations for travelers across Emirates’ and Air Canada’s extensive networks in the Americas, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. We are pleased to partner with Air Canada, one of North America’s most established airlines and Canada’s flag carrier and we look forward to jointly progressing on various areas to provide even better customer flight choices and experiences.”

To further enhance the customer experience, the carriers will also establish reciprocal frequent flyer benefits and reciprocal lounge access for qualifying customers. Further details of the partnership and specific codeshare routes will be announced when finalized and will be subject to regulatory approvals and final documentation.

Emirates secures its summer flight schedules, will restore its Luton route

Emirates expects a busy summer and is set to operate as scheduled over the peak travel season, including at its 39 European points with its London Stansted route re-starting from August 1, 2022.

With over 24,000 scheduled passenger flights to and from 129 airports around the world for July and August, Emirates has been co-ordinating with its ground handling partners at airports around the world, ensuring they are up-to-date with operational requirements and are prepared to support smooth passenger movement.

Emirates has also worked closely with other stakeholders at Dubai Airport to support its flight schedule and services, provisioning additional resources to ensure efficient operations at the hub, including for transiting passengers. Those visiting Dubai or doing a summer stopover can ease through departures and arrivals with speedy biometrics-enabled check-points; and utilise various convenient options for mobile, online, home, and self-check in.

The double-decked Emirates A380 aircraft is also being deployed to serve high customer demand at over 30 cities around its network, this includes popular European cities: Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Vienna, and Zurich.

Flight updates and travel advisories: To receive the latest flight updates, customers are encouraged to download the Emirates App or update their contact details by clicking on the ‘Manage My Booking’ tab on emirates.com. Customers should also check the latest travel requirements and advisories before their journey, and plan to arrive early at check-in, allowing extra time to clear airport formalities.

Dubai summer holidays and stopovers: Dubai is the place to be this season with The Dubai Summer Surprises, one of the city’s major shopping and entertainment events, running a packed line-up of events, family activities, and shopping promotions. The Emirates boarding pass doubles up as a discount card for the summer until 30 September 2022. Emirates’ customers can simply show their boarding pass and a valid form of identification to hundreds of retail, leisure and dining outlets to enjoy fantastic discounts throughout Dubai.

Emirates aircraft photo gallery:

Sky Express announces a strategic partnership with Emirates

Sky Express made this announcement:

New prospects for interconnecting the country and further enhancing of the tourist prod-uct are created by the agreement of the new era with the leading air carrier of the Middle East.

Emirates and SKY express are joining forces to offer passengers more flight options from New York and Dubai to the largest domestic network in Greece.

Passengers, flying with Emirates from Dubai and New York to Athens International Airport, will be able to continue their journey to one of the 34 Greek destinations SKY express serves. The connection is undertaken by the country’s youngest and greenest fleet and one of the most envi-ronmentally friendly in Europe, offering a special in-flight experience.

The new strategic interconnection with the leading air carrier in the Middle East is a practical recognition of the dynamics of SKY express at an international level. In addition, it gives a further boost to the country’s tourism development by creating the right conditions for visitors to arrive even from areas such as Australia, Southeast Asia and India via Dubai Airport.

This is the purpose of cooperation with global carriers such as Air Transat, Air France, KLM, Qatar Airways, American Airlines, Cyprus Airways, Condor, El Al, Transavia, Middle East Airlines, Air Transat, Delta and others.