Emirates announces network expansion plan

Emirates is embarking on a major expansion of its route network with three additional destinations to be launched in the next six months, on top of the 12 new routes already being rolled out in 2012. From November 1, the airline will launch four weekly flights to Adelaide, rising to a daily service from February 1, 2013. Adelaide will be the airline’s fifth destination in Australia which is currently served with 70 flights per week. The airline’s current double-daily service to Perth will grow to 19 weekly flights from December 1, becoming a triple daily operation from March 1 next year. On the western side of the globe, the French city of Lyon will be added to the Emirates’ network from December 5, the carrier’s third point in France after Paris and Nice. Emirates will operate five weekly flights to this vibrant economic and tourism centre of south eastern France. From February 6, 2013, Emirates will begin flights into Poland, where recently the World bank predicted the highest economic growth in the Central and Eastern European region. The airline will operate a daily service to the capital, Warsaw. “Emirates is currently in a concentrated and sustained period of global expansion,” said Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Group and Chief Executive of Emirates airline. “The addition of Adelaide to our network and the boost to our Perth operations demonstrates our commitment to investment and growth in our Australian operations and highlights the economic strength and global demand for the two cities as business, leisure and investment destinations. We will also grow capacity to Melbourne with the introduction of daily A380 services in October, in addition to our existing double decker flight into Sydney.” “Our increased operations into France, linking with Lyon, comes on the heels of our announcing a second A380 service into Paris from 1st January – all of which a response to acute demand for our services to and from this market. Poland continues our exciting push into this region of Europe,” Shaikh Ahmed added. Emirates, one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, has already launched nine new destinations so far in 2012; Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Lusaka, Harare, Dallas, Seattle, Ho Chi Minh City and Barcelona onTuesday. Lisbon route will be launched on July 9, Erbil follows on August 12 and Washington comes on board as of September 12. At the same, Emirates SkyCargo broadens its reach and support for the world’s importers and exporters by using belly-hold capacity aboard the passenger aircraft. The airline currently has a fleet of 176 aircraft, including the world’s largest Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 fleet, to 124 destinations — supported globally by more than 60,000 staff. A380 service to Moscow Meanwhile, the airline will launch the first ever scheduled A380 service to Moscow from 1st December. The airline’s 517-seat version of the A380 will replace the Boeing 777-300ER on EK flight 131/132, one of its two daily flights to the Russian capital. “Since launching flights to Moscow in 2003, the demand for our services in and out of Russia has continually gathered pace and we are now in a position to deploy the world’s largest passenger jet aircraft to the world’s largest country,” said Salem Obaidalla, Emirates’ senior vice-president, commercial operations, Europe and Russian Federation. The A380 is spread over two decks with the Moscow route version offering 427 seats in Economy Class, 76 mini-pods in Business Class and 14 First Class Private Suites.