Emirates to double its services to Dublin

Emirates airline Abu Dhabi - Arab Today Emirates, a global connector of people and places, will serve Dublin with a second daily non-stop flight from 1 September 2014. The airline's Boeing 777-300ER aircraft will add capacity of more than 5,000 seats a week in both directions. The new daily service will complement Emirates' Boeing 777 operation that commenced in January 2012. Timings have been scheduled to facilitate more effective onward connections from Dubai to major destinations in Australia and New Zealand, with shorter journey times into Auckland, Melbourne and Brisbane. Following the partnership agreement with Qantas, Emirates will continue to offer connections to almost 60 cities across Australia and New Zealand. Furthermore, the new flight introduces new connections to the Far East, India, East and Southern Africa. Passengers travelling on business trips will be offered a convenient overnight flight option with an early morning arrival into Dubai. The second service will feature 360 seats in a three-class configuration - eight seats in First Class, 42 in Business Class and 310 in Economy Class. Flight EK163 will leave Dubai at 1600hrs to reach Dublin at 2050hrs. The return flight EK164 will depart Dublin at 2220hrs, and will arrive in Dubai at 0855hrs the next day. "Air travel is indispensable for tourism and trade, the major engines of Ireland's resurgent economy. Emirates' expanded schedule will offer better connectivity for our customers when travelling between Dublin and Dubai and onwards to the rest of our network, increasing access to emerging markets and encouraging investment and innovation. There is a clear traffic flow taking place from Dublin to a number of destinations in our network, therefore boosting connections makes business sense," said Tim Clark, President, Emirates airline. "The doubling of Emirates' Dublin services will be extremely valuable in helping us to build upon the connections made during the Government's recent trade mission to the Gulf region as well as supporting additional export trade. It will also provide a boost to our efforts to increase tourism business as the Government continues, through the Action Plan for Jobs, to prioritise sectors which can provide sustainable jobs growth," said An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who welcomed the announcement. Over 440,000 passengers have travelled on the Dubai Dublin service since it commenced. Tourism Ireland estimates that average growth rates from Asia '&' Middle East passenger traffic to Ireland by 2020 will be over 6 per cent. Middle East traffic grew by 3 per cent just after the launch of the first Dublin service in 2012, according to the same source. Source: WAM