Emirates adds flights to four cities

Ivan Gale

• Last Updated: November 04. 2009 7:15PM UAE / November 4. 2009 3:15PM GMT

Emirates Airline says it will boost its capacity by 13 per cent next month to four cities in South East Asia and Australia, locations that have seen some of the strongest recoveries from the global economic downturn.

The Sydney expansion is timed to offer “same day service” to Europe, one of Australia’s key outbound markets, and allows passengers to have “breakfast in Sydney, lunch in Dubai and dinner in Europe”, the airline said.

Emirates is adding 17 weekly flights and new aircraft on routes to Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila and Sydney, which will bring its Asia Pacific service to 187 flights a week.

The airline has been seeking out pockets of rising demand as a wider trend of depressed global air travel remains due to the downturn and fears of the H1N1 pandemic.

Worldwide, airlines were expected to lose US$11 billion (Dh40.4bn) this year, the International Air Transport Association has said.

“Asian markets are rebounding with reports of resurgent traffic at key airports in the region,” said Richard Jewsbury, the senior vice president of commercial operations for the Far East and Australasia at Emirates.

“We are confident of seeing a recovery soon and are introducing additional capacity to serve the increasing demand.”

Many economies in East Asia, as well as Australia’s, are showing more vigorous recoveries than have been seen in western countries so far. The service upgrades by Emirates would include a fourth daily service to Bangkok, a third daily service to Sydney, two additional flights to Manila and one additional weekly flight to Jakarta. The airline, which is based in Dubai, will operate Boeing 777-300s on the routes, in a two-class configuration to Manila and Jakarta and a three classes to Bangkok.

Etihad Airways was also focused eastward and this week it added Hyderabad, its seventh destination in India, for four times a week.

The Asian cities targeted by Emirates are in demand by UAE residents for weekend trips, medical tourism, shopping and labour traffic, said Jimmy el Murr, the general manager of Salem Travel in Abu Dhabi.

However, their real appeal was adding new services for Europeans travelling over Emirates’s Dubai hub, he said.

“Emirates does a lot of transfer traffic and they have a very good network in Europe, and now they are adding more routes in South East Asia – this is a natural expansion for them,” he said.

UAE residents stayed home this year due to fears of H1N1, with many cancelling their holidays or rescheduling them to stay in the region, Mr el Murr said, although he added that those fears had largely subsided.

igale@thenational.ae