Tag Archives: Emirates

Emirates has announced that it will introduce the first scheduled commercial Airbus A380 service to Hamburg on October 29. To commemorate the inaugural arrival in Hamburg, the A380 will be deployed on the morning service (EK059/EK060), while from 30 October the A380 will be regularly deployed on the afternoon service (EK061/EK062).  The deployment of the iconic double decker aircraft will represent a capacity increase of over 22 per cent on the route, the airlines said in a statement. With a total of 6,090 weekly seats in each direction, Emirates will offer business and leisure travellers from the North of Germany an even greater choice of travel options to Dubai and to over 150 destinations beyond, highlighting Hamburg’s importance as part of the airline’s global network. Emirates’ Airbus A380 aircraft serving the Dubai-Hamburg route will offer high levels of comfort and high quality service: a total of 516 seats in a three-class configuration, with 426 spacious seats in Economy on the main deck, 76 fully flat bed seats in Business and 14 First Class Private Suites on the upper deck. The Emirates A380 is renowned for its First Class Shower Spas as well as the Onboard Lounge for First and Business Class passengers, arguably the most popular social spot at 40,000 feet. Passengers in all classes enjoy free Wi-Fi to stay in touch with family and friends and Emirates’ multi-award winning ‘ice’ inflight entertainment with up to 3,500 channels of movies, TV programmes, music and podcasts on the industry’s biggest personal screens in each class of travel.

Emirates has commenced its signature Ramadan service for customers during the holy month. Emirates’ Ramadan service consists of specially crafted iftar meals on board, relevant programming on its ice inflight entertainment system, and the distribution of dates and water on the ground for those breaking their fast. The airlines provides iftar boxes with a nutritional meal for customers breaking their fast on board. The boxes have been redesigned this year by local homeware specialists Silsal Design House. The designs are inspired by the Middle East, its people, places and culture. Silsal has also created bespoke Emirates Arabic Coffee Cups available at the Emirates Official Stores. The iftar boxes provide a nutritious meal for customers to break their fast and includes couscous salad & grilled chicken or moudardara & roasted chicken, sandwiches, spinach fatayer or tomato and onion fatayer, assorted sweets, dates, laban and water. The boxes have been designed for customers to take away if they wish. The menus will be refreshed mid-Ramadan. These special meals will be available to passengers across all cabin classes on select Emirates flights that coincide with iftar times. This includes flights to and from the Gulf region as well as flights catering to Umrah groups travelling to Jeddah and Medina during the month of Ramadan. During the holy month, cold meals will be served in lieu of a hot one on all flights to Jeddah and Medina, including Umrah day flights. Emirates utilises a unique tool to calculate the correct timings for imsak (the time to commence fasting) and iftar while in-flight.

Emirates has announced the year-round service from Edinburgh to Dubai from October 1, 2018. The new service will be operated by an Emirates Boeing 777-300ER in a three class cabin configuration, with eight private suites in First Class, 42 lie flat seats in Business Class and 304 spacious seats in Economy Class. The Scottish capital, with its Old Town and New Town both being UNESCO World Heritage Sites, is the second most visited city in the UK by tourists. It is famed for its rich history, cultural and architectural attractions, gourmet food scene, as well as international festivals and cultural events. It was also the first city in the world to be designated a UNESCO City of Literature, while last year it was named by the European Union as the top city of its size in Europe for culture and creativity. “We’re increasing our capacity to Scotland to meet growing demand, and by introducing a daily flight to Edinburgh, it will complement our current double daily flights between Dubai and Glasgow. Edinburgh is a very popular leisure and business destination, and the new service will offer our customers from across our global network, particularly from key inbound markets such as Asia and Australia, a direct option to the city via our Dubai hub. It will also be a more convenient point for travellers from the greater Edinburgh area, and beyond, such as Aberdeen and Dundee, to travel with Emirates to Dubai and onward to destinations across our network,” said Hubert Frach, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, West. Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport, commented, “This is a fantastic announcement for Edinburgh Airport as we welcome another world …

Emirates recently landed six of its special ‘livery aircraft’ on six continents on the occassion of centennial birthday of the UAE’s Founding Father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman & Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group, said, “Today, we celebrate the centennial anniversary of the birth of the UAE’s founding father, His Highness Sheikh Zayed, who dedicated his life to building a thriving and vibrant UAE. The principles and initiatives he set in motion have become the foundations for the UAE’s progress. We hope through our special liveries we honour his memory and legacy and help spread his inspirational messages around the world as our aircraft continue to circle the globe in 2018.” This tribute to the late His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was first unveiled in November 2017 on the fuselage of Emirates’ 100th A380 aircraft, commemorating the 100th year of HH Sheikh Zayed’s birth. A total of 10 Emirates aircraft carry the special livery for 2018. The ‘Year of Zayed’ Emirates aircraft have circled the globe to over 90 cities on over 1,800 flights.

Emirates has introduced Home Check-in, a new service which will allow its customers to check in for their flights from anywhere in Dubai. The service is available for customers across all classes travelling on Emirates flights. The new service enables Emirates passengers to complete the security check and check-in from the comfort of their home, hotel or office and have their luggage transported to the airport prior to their flight. An Emirates check-in agent will arrive at the preferred location to weigh and tag the bags as well as check-in the customers and issue boarding passes. Customers can then make their own way to the airport and head directly to immigration, bypassing the check-in desks at the airport. The service is available for AED 350 per trip for up to 7 pieces of luggage. AED 35 will be charged for each additional piece of luggage. Customers can book the service on emirates.com up to 12 hours before flight departure time. Emirates has been running trials for its Home Check-in service since October to ensure that the customer experience and security checks are faultless. The service seals each bag and stores them in a separate hold in the van. Emirates Home Check-in will be operated with a new fleet of vans. The new Home Check-in offering complements other luggage handling services already available for Emirates flights in Dubai.

An MoU was signed at the Arabian Travel Market between Emirates and Mauritius to strengthen their partnership in future. It was signed by Orhan Abbas, Senior Vice President – Commercial Operations for Africa, Emirates’ and Devi Seewooruthun, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, in the presence of Anil Gayan, Minister of Tourism, Republic of Mauritius, . “Mauritius has always been an important destination on the Emirates network, and we are pleased to be continuing our long standing commitment with them. We will look to develop a series of joint activities together with the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, to highlight the destination and its appeal throughout our network”, said Abbas. “The partnership between Mauritius and Emirates has stood the test of time. The signing of this fresh MoU is a strong signal to strengthening that partnership even more in the years to come”, said Gayan. The agreement will see marketing activities such as attendance of tourism trade shows and fairs, trade familiarisation trips, product presentations and workshops, amongst others, be undertaken jointly by Emirates and the Tourism Board. In 2017, Mauritius welcomed 1,341,860 tourists. The destinations’ main markets are France, UK, Germany, South Africa, India, Italy, China, the Russian Federation and Reunion Island.

Emirates has unveiled its new Boeing 777-300ER First Class Private Suite at the ongoing Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. The airline is also showcasing its latest Boeing 777 Business Class seat, the A380 onboard lounge, along with other products such as the First Class Shower Spa and the latest version of its Economy Class seats. Visitors can experience the Emirates network through an interactive 60 second challenge played on a touchscreen route map. Last year, the airline launched new passenger routes to Newark via Athens, Zagreb and Phnom Penh, and later this year, Emirates will begin services to London Stanstead and Santiago de Chile. This year marks Emirates’ 25th year of partnership and commitment to ATM. When the exhibition first opened its doors in 1993, Emirates flew 15 aircraft to 32 destinations and carried 2 million passengers. The Emirates stand at ATM will offer visitors a chance to experience the airline’s recently-launched products and service enhancements. The game changing, fully enclosed first-class private suites on exhibit have floor to ceiling sliding doors, soft leather seating, high-tech control panels and mood lighting. Incorporating cutting-edge technology, the suites also feature several world-firsts, including ‘virtual windows’ using real-time fibre-optic camera technology, a NASA inspired ‘zero-gravity’ seating position and a personal video-call service.

Emirates is set to add a second daily flight between Dubai and Prague from July 1, 2018, after steadily growing passenger numbers on the route since its launch of operations in July 2010. The flight will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER with a capacity of 360 seats, boosting inbound tourism through the additional 262,800 seats it will provide. The year-round flight will have a three class configuration offering eight Private Suites in First Class, 42 lie-flat seats in Business and 310 spacious seats in Economy. Emirates‘ flight EK137 will leave Dubai at 15:30 and arrive in Prague at 19:55. The return flight EK138 will depart Prague at 21:35 and arrive in Dubai at 05:30 on the following day, giving travellers a full day in Dubai. The second daily flight will improve Prague’s connectivity to and from a range of destinations in the Emirates network including Far East places like Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Phuket in Thailand, Yangon in Myanmar, Guangzhou in China and Phnom Penh in Cambodia. African destinations of Durban, Dar-Es-Salaam, Harare, Lusaka, Entebbe and Nairobi as well as Auckland and Christchurch in New Zealand and Brisbane in Australia will be easily reached with improved connectivity with a convenient transit in Dubai’s world-class hub.

Emirates has unveiled a brand new Business Class cabin and configuration on its Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, with new wider seats laid out in a 2-2-2 configuration for the first time. The airline has invested over US$150 million to refurbish the 10 existing 777-200LR aircraft in its fleet. The newly refurbished Emirates 777-200LR aircraft is set in a two-class configuration which offers 38 Business Class seats and 264 seats in Economy Class.  While the Business Class seats are in the same design and shape of Emirates’ latest lie-flat seats, they are now two inches wider for a more comfortable journey. The seats retain the champagne coloured finish and diamond stitch pattern on the full leather cover, and the ergonomically designed headrest revealed on Emirates’ newest Boeing 777 in November. The Business Class seat has a pitch of 72 inches and moves into a fully flat sleeping position.  It also has touchscreen controls for the seat and inflight entertainment system, several personal lighting options, privacy panels between seats, a shoe stowage area, footrest and a personal mini-bar. Luxury and comfort are at the heart of Emirates’ product refresh as overhead bins in centre of the cabin have been removed for an airier and more spacious feel on board. The cabin boasts electronic windows and the largest personal in-flight entertainment (IFE) screens in Business Class at 23 inches wide. The cabin also features the Ghaf tree – considered the national tree of the United Arab Emirates, and now a signature design on the latest Emirates aircraft.

Emirates will once again begin operations with its flagship A380 service between Houston (IAH) and Dubai (DXB) from June 1, 2018. Houston will join more than 40 destinations on Emirates’ extensive global network served by its popular A380 aircraft, including Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Kuwait. Emirates will deploy its three-class A380 on the Houston route, offering a total of  516 seats with 14 private suites in First Class, 76 flatbed seats in Business Class seats and 426 spacious seats in Economy Class, increasing capacity per flight by more than 160 passengers compared to the current Boeing 777-300ER. Services to Houston were upgraded to an A380 in December 2014, but as part of Emirates’ fleet optimisation, the decision was made in July 2016 to operate the route with a Boeing 777-300ER. Flight EK211 will depart Dubai at 09:35 and arrive in Houston at 16:50 daily. Return flight EK212 will depart Houston at 20:00 and arrive in Dubai at 20:00 the next day. Passengers from Houston can enjoy convenient connections in Dubai when travelling to destinations in India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore or South Africa.