Emirates has confirmed that it will be commencing daily services to Tel Aviv from June 23, 2022. Emirates will operate its three-class Boeing 777-300ER on the route, featuring eight private suites in First Class, 42 lie flat seats in Business Class and 304 spacious seats in Economy Class.

The first flight taking off on June 23 will operate as EK931, leaving at 15:50hrs, and arriving at Ben Gurion Airport at 18:00hrs local time. The return flight EK 932 will depart Tel Aviv at 19:55hrs, arriving in Dubai at 23:59hrs (local time). Flight schedules have been timed to provide convenient access to Dubai, and optimum connection opportunities to popular holiday destinations like Thailand, India, Philippines, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Emirates has an extensive Middle East network and currently flies to 12 cities across the region from Dubai.

Emirates has announced it will ramp up its global operations with the restart of services to four destinations, including:  Bali (May 1), London Stansted (August 1), Rio de Janeiro (November 2), and Buenos Aires (November 2).

The airline has also announced it will boost services to Nigeria, Mauritius and Singapore to serve market demand. In line with the easing of travel restrictions worldwide, Emirates continues to rebuild and expand its global network to meet travel demand.

Emirates returns to Bali, London Stansted, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires

Starting from May 1, 2022 Emirates will operate five weekly flights to Bali, utilising a two-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. The airline will also scale up its operations from July 1, 2022 to serve the island destination with a daily service. With its spectacular mountains, picturesque beaches and cultural appeal, Bali is considered to be a world leading tourist destination.

Starting from August 1, 2022 Emirates will resume flight operations to London Stansted with five weekly flights, utilizing Emirates’ Boeing 777-300ER aircraft fitted with the ‘Game Changer’ First Class product. From  September 1, the airline will increase its services to offer a daily flight. By October 2022, the airline will be serving the UK with 110 weekly flights, including: six times daily to London Heathrow; double daily A380 service to Gatwick; three times daily to Manchester, including a double daily A380 service (starting October 1, 2022); double daily service to Birmingham; five weekly flights to Newcastle (with the fifth weekly flight starting from July 1, 2022); and a daily service to Glasgow.

Emirates will operate four weekly flights to Buenos Aires via Rio de Janeiro, on its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from November 2, 2022 – offering customers from Argentina and Brazil direct connectivity to popular business and leisure destinations across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. From  February 1 2023, Emirates will scale up its operations to a daily service, offering customers greater convenience, choice and flexibility while planning their travel.

Boosting operations to Nigeria, Mauritius and Singapore

Emirates is ramping up its services to Lagos with 11 weekly flights, starting from July 1, 2022. The airline will ramp up its operations to the Nigerian city to offer a double daily service starting from September 1, 2022 – taking the airline’s services to pre-pandemic levels. Emirates will also increase its services to Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, to offer 5 weekly flights starting May 1, 2022 and then a daily service from September 1, 2022.

In line with rising demand, the airline will be scaling up flights to Mauritius from daily to nine weekly flights between April 9, 2022 and the end of June 2022, and then moving up to double daily flights from July 2022. Emirates’ second daily flight will provide an important boost to tourism to the Indian Ocean destination which has now relaxed entry restrictions for travelers. Under the codeshare agreement with Air Mauritius, customers of both airlines can enjoy greater access and seamless connectivity to and from the island-nation.

The airline will also increase passenger services to Singapore from seven weekly flights, to 14 weekly flights, starting from June 23, 2022. The added service will meet the increased demand for travel, since the country safely reopened to international tourists and eased travel restrictions.

Fly better to more than 130 destinations with Emirates

With the resumption of services to four more destinations, Emirates’ extensive network will span to more than 130 destinations, across six continents. The airline continues to place top priority on safe travel with the implementation of comprehensive set of measures on the ground throughout all touchpoints and on board to provide its passengers with the highest safety and hygiene standards at every step of the journey. Customers traveling from Dubai can also take advantage of state of the art contactless technology to ease their journey through the airport.

Emirates also offers its customers an unmatched culinary experience in the skies with regionally inspired multi-course menus developed by a team of award winning chefs complemented by a wide selection of premium beverages. Customers can sit back and relax with more than 5,000 channels of carefully curated global entertainment content featuring movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, games, audiobooks and more with ice, Emirates’ award-winning inflight entertainment system.

In other news, Emirates will be operating twice daily flights on its flagship A380 aircraft to Mauritius from July 1, 2022 to meet the increase in demand for travel to the island nation.

Emirates currently operates daily flights to Mauritius . In line with rising demand, the airline will be scaling up operations from daily to nine weekly flights between April 9,2022 and the end of June 2022 and then moving up to double daily flights from July 2022.

Emirates’ second daily flight will provide an important boost to tourism to the Indian Ocean destination which has now relaxed entry restrictions for travelers. The additional flight will also provide more choice in flight timings and seamless connectivity to customers from markets across Europe, Americas and the Middle East looking to travel to Mauritius to enjoy its sandy beaches, crystal clear waters and lush natural landscapes.

The Emirates A380 experience remains a customer favorite offering 14 First Class suites, 76 lie-flat seats in Business Class and 426 ergonomically designed seats in Economy Class. Customers traveling to and from Mauritius can once again look forward to enjoying the aircraft’s spacious and comfortable cabins and the unmissable signature products and services, including the iconic A380 Onboard Lounge and Shower Spa. Guests in all classes can enjoy regionally inspired cuisine designed by award winning chefs and non-stop entertainment on their flights with ice, Emirates’ award winning inflight entertainment system featuring a catalogue of over 4,500 channels featuring movies, music, TV shows, podcasts, audiobooks, games and more.

In response to growing passenger demand for air travel, Emirates will double its flights between Algiers and Dubai from two to four weekly, starting on May 1, 2022. The service currently between Algiers and Dubai will no longer be linked with Tunis, offering more flexibility and convenience to travel to Dubai and onwards to Emirates’ extensive network of more than 130 destinations. Emirates is also the only airline serving Algeria with private, enclosed First Class cabins, offering premium customers an enriched experience across every touchpoint of the journey.

Emirates will utilize its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft between Algiers and Dubai, and the new flights will operate on Saturdays and Sundays, in addition to the current Tuesday and Thursday services. Flight EK758 departs Algiers at 15:45hrs, arriving in Dubai at 01:05hrs the next day. EK757 departs Dubai at 08:45hrs, arriving in Algiers at 12:55hrs.

In other news, Emirates will continue to fly to Russia, unless the UAE stops the flights.

Emirates has made this announcement:

With Eid Al Fitr approaching and more travellers planning to take to the skies, Emirates is responding by offering more flights across seven cities in the GCC and Middle East. The airline is stepping up its schedule by adding 23 flights and layering on additional seats with the deployment of both Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s between April 28 and May 8 to the four cities it serves in KSA, as well as to Kuwait, Beirut, and Amman.

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Emirates will be layering on two additional flights on May 2 and May 8 to serve demand in and out of Riyadh. In Jeddah, the airline will add five flights served by its Boeing 777, and will be upgrading one of its existing flights to an A380, to become an all A380 operation. Medina will also be served with four additional flights during this time, and travelers from Dammam will also have the option of one extra flight on 28 April as they start their holidays. This year, Emirates customers in KSA will be venturing to Dubai for their Eid Al Fitr celebrations, in addition to the Maldives, Paris, Bangkok, Mauritius, Manila and Los Angeles in the US.

Popular destinations for Kuwaiti travelers this year include Dubai, the Maldives, Manila, Bangkok, London, Mauritius and Paris and Emirates will be operating eight additional flights served by its Boeing 777 during Eid.

Emirates will be layering on three flights served by its Boeing 777s to the airline’s existing Beirut schedule to accommodate for more travelers as they head home to visit friends and relatives. Amman flights served by the Boeing 777 will also be upgraded with higher seat capacities.

Travellers can also can book special Emirates Holidays packages, with curated experiences, hotel stays and more to suit every preference and taste.

Keeping with Eid traditions, and providing a touch of Middle Eastern hospitality, the airline will be serving a specially crafted Eid menu for customers between May 2-5 for all GCC, Middle East and North Africa flights departing from and arriving to Dubai.

Customers across all classes can expect to tuck into succulent Chicken Gabuli or Prawn Biryani to start their celebrations. Emirates will also be serving decadent desserts like saffron and pistachio cakes for First and Business Class customers. Economy class customers can also enjoy the chicken and prawn options and indulge their sweet tooth with soft and crumbly pistachio namoura or saffron cake to round off their meal.  Customers travelling on the A380 in First and Business Class will also be able to enjoy a curated selection of Emirati Eid pastries and chocolates in the Onboard Lounge.

Emirates First and Business Class Dubai lounges will be offering customers Arabic Coffee, dates, traditional Eid sweets and two new flavours of ice-cream, cinnamon baklava and Arabic coffee with dates. Customers at Emirates’ dedicated Cairo and Singapore lounges will also be offered special sweets and savoury dishes.

Top Copyright Photo: Emirates Airline Airbus A380-861 A6-EDO (msn 057) LHR (SPA). Image: 945265.

Emirates aircraft slide show:

Emirates aircraft photo gallery:

Emirates Airlines has made this announcement:

Emirates has revealed a new custom A380 livery dedicated to Dubai’s newest architectural icon and centre for pioneering concepts and ideas, the Museum of the Future.

The first Emirates A380 (A6-EVK) (above) to sport this exciting new livery, takes flight on May 5 to Los Angeles. As its nine other aircraft siblings roll out of the dedicated Aircraft Appearance Centre at Emirates Engineering  over the coming weeks, Emirates’ Museum of the Future A380s will be deployed on routes to Europe as well as key Arab regional cities.

Note: 10 A380s will wear this special livery.

This initiative underscores the airline’s unwavering commitment to support Dubai’s vision as the leading city of the future, a hub for innovation and testbed for emerging technologies. It also crystallises the UAE’s 50 years of development and progress.

The seven storey, pillarless, torus-shaped Museum of the Future, dubbed as the ‘world’s most beautiful building’, has become one of Dubai’s definitive design marvels, and aims to inspire the world to imagine the possibilities of tomorrow, featuring mesmerising installations and futuristic experiences. The building’s ring forms a void to represent unknown and undiscovered knowledge.

The Museum will also act as an incubator for scientists, thinkers and researchers to bring their bold ideas and visions of the future to life, especially across areas like sustainability, outer space, health, and other critical global challenges. It will also be a platform to trial and demonstrate the latest technological discoveries, with prototypes that will continually evolve from emerging start-ups and established technology enterprises.

The ring shaped, Arabic calligraphy encapsulated building encircles both sides of the aircraft, and features the message ‘Journey to the future’ across the fuselage, covering a total of 336 sqm on the A380. The façade is decorated with quotes from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The airline will produce 10 A380 liveries in total, which will fly across close to 30 destinations around the world in the coming year, carrying the museum’s message of creating a better future, now.

In other news, Emirates will be unveiling its full Premium Economy cabin experience from May 9-12 at Arabian Travel Market 2022 (ATM).

The region’s leading travel and tourism exhibition is expected to welcome 20,000 visitors this year, with the theme of ‘The future of international travel and tourism’, and Emirates’ iconic presence at the event this year will be fittingly themed ‘The future is now’.

The Emirates stand will also offer members of the travel and tourism industry from over 112 countries a chance to experience the airline’s signature products in every cabin class.

Over ATM’s four days, Emirates’ executives and commercial teams will be at the airline’s stand with a busy agenda of face-to-face business meetings, taking the opportunity to network and reconnect with travel trade industry partners, and establishing new partnerships in line with the airline’s work to help the industry collectively rebuild better for the future.

The highly popular Emirates Premium Economy seat which will be on display at ATM is a luxurious take on the traditional cabin, providing more comfort with legroom of up to 40 inches, wide seats that span 19.5 inches with a generous 8 inch recline, and other thoughtful touches for customers to comfortably sit back and relax.

In addition, Emirates will also feature its show-stopping Boeing 777-300ER game-changer First Class fully enclosed private suite, Boeing 777 Business Class seat, newest generation A380 Onboard Lounge, along with other iconic products such the First Class Shower Spa and its generously pitched game-changer Economy Class seats.

The Emirates stand is located in Hall 3, stand number ME3210 at ATM.

Emirates aircraft photo gallery:

Emirates Group issued this financial report:

Group records annual loss of AED 3.8 billion (US$1.0 billion) due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic impact, a significant improvement from last year with dnata returning to profitability

• Group revenue of AED 66.2 billion (US$ 18.1 billion) increased by 86% with strong customer demand as worldwide travel restrictions ease
• Ends year with an improved and strong cash balance of AED 25.8 billion (US$7.0 billion)

Emirates reports a significantly reduced loss of AED 3.9 billion (US$1.1 billion) compared with AED 20.3 billion (US$5.5 billion) loss in the previous year

• Revenue up 91% to AED 59.2 billion (US$16.1 billion), as airline expanded global capacity and reinstated more passenger flights
• Airline capacity increased by 47% to 36.4 billion ATKMs, with final five A380 aircraft added to its fleet

dnata reports a profit of AED 110 million (US$ 30 million), a solid turnaround from its AED 1.8 billion (US$496 million) loss in the previous year

• Revenue increased by 54% to AED 8.6 billion (US$2.3 billion), reflecting recovery from the pandemic across all business divisions in the UAE and worldwide
• Expands global footprint with the takeover of easyJet’s global onboard retail services and the opening of new cargo, airport hospitality and retail facilities

The Emirates Group today released its 2021-22 Annual Report which shows strong recovery across its businesses. dnata returns to profitability, and significant revenue improvements were reported across both Emirates and dnata as the Group rebuilt its air transport and travel-related operations which were previously cut-back or curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the financial year ended 31 March 2022, the Emirates Group posted a loss of AED 3.8 billion (US$1.0 billion) compared with an AED 22.1 billion (US$6.0 billion) loss for last year. The Group’s revenue was AED 66.2 billion (US$18.1 billion), an increase of 86% over last year’s results. The Group’s cash balance was AED 25.8 billion (US$ 7.0 billion), up 30% from last year mainly due to strong demand across its core business divisions and markets, triggered by the easing of pandemic-related restrictions.

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group, said: “This year, we focussed on restoring our operations quickly and safely wherever pandemic-related restrictions eased across our markets. Business recovery picked up pace particularly in the second half of the year. Robust customer demand drove a huge improvement in our financial performance compared to our unprecedented losses of last year and we built up our strong cash balance.

“The health and safety of our people and customers remained a key priority as the world navigated its second full year of the pandemic. Across Emirates and dnata, we responded to dynamic market conditions with agility, and introduced innovative products and services to meet our customers’ needs and provide them with the best possible experience.

“2021-22 was also a significant year as the UAE marked its 50^th anniversary and hosted the world at Expo 2020 Dubai which generated increased global engagement and visitation to the UAE. The Emirates Group was proud to play our part in contributing to the Expo’s success and to the UAE’s jubilee events.”

In 2021-22, Emirates received a further capital injection of AED 3.5 billion (US$ 954 million) from its ultimate shareholder, the Government of Dubai, and the Group tapped on various industry support programmes and availed a total relief of nearly AED 0.8 billion in 2021-22.

As Emirates and dnata ramped up operations, employees previously on furlough or made redundant were recalled and rehired, and new recruitment drives were held to replenish the Group’s talent pool and boost its future capabilities. As a result, the Group’s total workforce increased by 13% to 85,219 employees, representing over 160 different nationalities.

In 2021-22, the Group collectively invested AED 7.9 billion (US$ 2.2 billion) in new aircraft and facilities, and the latest technologies to position the business for recovery and future growth. It also continued to progress its environmental strategy focussed on reducing carbon emissions, consuming resources responsibly, and conserving wildlife and habitats. During the year, the Group supported community, humanitarian and philanthropic initiatives in its various markets, as well as innovation incubators, and other programmes that nurture future solutions for industry growth.

Sheikh Ahmed said: “For the Emirates Group, 2021-22 was largely about recovery, after the toughest year in our Group’s history. It’s not just about restoring our capacity, but also augmenting our future capabilities as we rebuild. Our aim is to build back better and stronger, so that we can deliver even better experiences to our customers and offer more support to the communities we serve.

“We expect the Group to return to profitability in 2022-23, and are working hard to hit our targets, while keeping a close watch on headwinds such as high fuel prices, inflation, new COVID-19 variants, and political and economic uncertainty.

“Our steady investments in infrastructure, technology, people, and partnerships, will continue to give us the ability and advantage in delivering industry-leading products and value to our customers. As Dubai and the UAE move ahead with its strategy for the next 50 years and beyond, the Emirates Group is well positioned to play our role in contributing to economic growth, facilitating global engagement, and making a positive impact on people and communities.”

Emirates performance

Emirates’ total passenger and cargo capacity increased by 47% to 36.4 billion ATKMs in 2021-22, as the airline continued to reinstate passenger services across its network in line with the lifting of pandemic-related flight and travel restrictions.

From 120 destinations at the start of the financial year, to increased operations and capacity growth across over 140 destinations by 31 March 2022, Emirates was able to respond dynamically to serve customer demand wherever opportunities arose, thanks to the resilience of its people and business model. In July, the airline launched a new route to Miami, bringing its total passenger gateways in the US to 12.

To serve the strong rebound in travel demand, Emirates deployed its flagship A380 aircraft to even more cities during the year, bringing its A380 network to 29 destinations as of 31 March 2022.

Helping travellers access even more destinations, in 2021-22, Emirates reinforced its strategic partnerships with Qantas and flydubai, and expanded its interline and codeshare partnerships across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia including with: Aeromar, airBaltic, Airlink, Azul, Cemair, Garuda Indonesia, Gulf Air, Maldivian, South African Airways and TAP Air Portugal. Emirates also signed agreements and launched initiatives with tourism partners in various destinations to support travel and tourism recovery.

Emirates received its final five new A380 aircraft during the financial year, all equipped with its latest cabin interiors including Premium Economy seats. It also phased out 2 older aircraft comprising of 1 Boeing 777-300ER and 1 Freighter, leaving its total fleet count at 262 at the end of March. Emirates’ average fleet age remains at a youthful 8.2 years.

Emirates’ order book of 197 aircraft remains unchanged at this time. The airline is firmly committed to its long-standing strategy of operating a modern and efficient fleet, which underscores its “Fly Better” brand promise, as young aircraft are better for the environment, better for operations, and better for customers.

With significantly enhanced capacity deployment across most markets, Emirates’ total revenue for the financial year increased 91% to AED 59.2 billion (US$ 16.1 billion). Currency fluctuations this year impacted the airline’s profitability negatively by AED 348 million (US$ 95 million).

Total operating costs increased by 30% from last financial year. Cost of ownership (depreciation and amortisation) and fuel cost were the two biggest cost components for the airline in 2021-22, followed by employee cost. Fuel accounted for 23% of operating costs compared to 14% in 2020-21. The airline’s fuel bill more than doubled to AED 13.9 billion (US$ 3.8 billion) compared to the previous year, driven by a higher uplift of 66% in line with capacity expansion and a higher average fuel price which was up by 75%.

With the removal of pandemic-related flight and travel restrictions globally, the airline managed to substantially improve its financial results and reported a loss of AED 3.9 billion (US$ 1.1 billion) after last year’s AED 20.3 billion (US$ 5.5 billion) loss, and a loss margin of 6.6%, significantly improved compared to 65.6% last year.

Emirates carried 19.6 million passengers (up by 199%) in 2021-22, with seat capacity up by 150%. The airline reports a Passenger Seat Factor of 58.6%, compared with last year’s passenger seat factor of 44.3%; and a 10% decline in passenger yield to 35.1 fils (9.6 US cents) per Revenue Passenger Kilometre (RPKM), due to the change in route mix, fares and currency. Seat load factor and yield results cannot be compared against the previous year’s performance due to the ongoing unusual pandemic situation.

Emirates continued to invest in its products and services to deliver ever better customer experiences. This year, it announced a major retrofit programme to equip 120 of its 777 and A380 aircraft with its new Premium Economy seats and the latest cabin interiors.

It also accelerated digital initiatives to provide customers with smoother and safer journeys, from the quick and secure verification of COVID-19 travel documents, to more biometrics and contactless touchpoints at its Dubai hub.

Emirates continued to lead the industry with initiatives that provide customer assurance as travel restrictions eased and more people made travel plans. It extended its generous rebooking waivers and complimentary COVID-19 medical cover for all customers; and introduced new ways for Emirates Skywards members to earn Miles while extending the expiry of miles and tier status.

In this 2^nd pandemic year, Emirates SkyCargo once again put in a stellar performance and contributed to 40% of the airline’s total transport revenue through its ability to respond rapidly to changing demand patterns in a distorted global marketplace.

Emirates SkyCargo maintained its edge in the global airfreight industry by focusing its customers, bringing innovative solutions to the market, and leveraging its fleet and network capabilities.

Rebuilding its network and capacity, the cargo division intelligently deployed its freighter fleet and belly-hold capacity, to meet customer needs. By 30 June 2021, it had restored services to over 90% of its pre-pandemic network.

During the year, Emirates SkyCargo continued to play an important role in getting COVID-19 vaccines and other medical supplies to communities around the world, and keeping trade lanes open for food supplies, e-commerce and other essential goods. In June 2021, it invested to scale up its pharma cool chain infrastructure in Dubai and by March 2022, Emirates SkyCargo had transported 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

At the Dubai Airshow 2021, Emirates announced a US$ 1 billion investment to acquire 2 new Boeing 777 freighters and convert 4 existing 777-300ER aircraft into freighters.

With steady and strong air freight demand throughout the year, Emirates’ cargo division reported a new record revenue of AED 21.7 billion (US$ 5.9 billion), an increase of 27% over last year.

Freight yield per Freight Tonne Kilometre (FTKM) decreased by 3% as more cargo capacity returned to the global market, but generally remained at high levels compared to the pandemic marketplace due to steady and strong demand.

Tonnage carried increased by 14% to reach 2.1 million tonnes, due to the growth in available bellyhold capacity for the entire year with the reinstatement of more passenger services. At the end of 2021-22, Emirates’ SkyCargo’s total freighter fleet stood at 10 Boeing 777Fs.

Emirates’ hotels portfolio doubled revenue over last year to AED 602 million (US$ 164 million) as it re-opened more facilities to serve the upswing in tourism traffic and the gradual recovery of the meetings and conferences industry.

During the year, Emirates successfully restructured and extended various aircraft leases. The support from aviation lessors and financing partners during these challenging times reflect the financial community’s confidence in Emirates’ business model, and its mid to longer term prospects.

In addition to the AED 9.7 billion (US$ 2.6 billion) financing that was raised for aircraft and general corporate purposes in 2021-22, Emirates has already received committed offers to finance two aircraft deliveries due in 2022-23.

Emirates closed the financial year with solid cash assets of AED 20.9 billion (US$ 5.7 billion), 38% higher compared to 31 March 2021.

dnata performance

Recovery from the pandemic was felt across all dnata businesses, and in 2021-22 dnata returned to profitability with a profit of AED 110 million (US$ 30 million).

With growing flight and travel activity across the world, dnata’s total revenue increased by 54% to AED 8.6 billion (US$ 2.3 billion). dnata’s international business accounts for 62% of its revenue.

dnata continued to lay the foundations for future growth with investments in 2021-22 amounting to AED 370 million (US$ 101 million).

During the year, dnata invested significantly in its cargo handling capabilities. It expanded existing facilities in Sydney, Australia; opened a state-of-the-art cargo centre at London Heathrow airport; and announced a fully automated cargo centre to be built at ‘dnata Cargo City’ at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. It also introduced an advanced “OneCargo” system which digitises and automates business and operational functions at its Iraq cargo operations, with plans to roll out the system across its global cargo network.

In 2021-22, dnata’s operating costs increased by 14% to AED 8.4 billion (US$ 2.3 billion), in line with expanded operations in its Airport Operations, Catering and Travel divisions across the world.

dnata’s cash balance improved by AED 208 million to AED 4.9 billion (US$ 1.3 billion). Net cash used in financing activities, primarily payments for loans and leases, amounted to AED 745 million (US$ 203 million), while the business utilised net cash of AED 246 million (US$ 67 million) in essential investing activities. The business saw a positive operating cash flow of AED 1.2 billion (US$ 332 million) in 2021-22, a reflection of the substantial improvements in revenues.

Revenue from dnata’s Airport Operations, including ground and cargo handling increased to AED 5.7 billion (US$ 1.6 billion).

The number of aircraft turns handled by dnata globally grew by 82% to 527,501, cargo handled increased by 10% to 3.0 million tonnes, reflecting the increase in flight activity across the globe as dnata’s customers re-started their operations wherever market restrictions on flights and travel were lifted.

During 2021-22, dnata expanded its global airport operations footprint into Africa. It signed a concession agreement with The Government of Zanzibar, where dnata will oversee the operations of the island’s newly-built international terminal with its partners, including Emirates Leisure Retail (ELR) who will partner with MMI as master concessionaire for all food and beverage, duty free and commercial outlets at the terminal.

marhaba, dnata’s airport hospitality brand, marked its 30^th year of operations with the launch of its signature meet and greet services at four of Australia’s major airports, a new lounge in Zurich Airport, and a re-designed experience at its flagship lounge at Dubai International.

dnata’s Catering business accounted for AED 1.7 billion (US$ 455 million) of dnata’s revenue, up by 60%. The inflight catering business uplifted 39.9 million meals to airline customers, more than double the number of meals from last year, as its airline customers across the world restored their flight operations.

Significant customer wins during the year include BA CityFlyer, which led to dnata Catering launching operations at London City Airport; and the global inflight retail services contract for easyJet where dnata’s team of inflight retail experts will develop and manage bespoke onboard retail programmes and solutions for the airline.

It also saw significant activity in Australia. As the country re-opened its borders to international travellers, dnata worked closely with airline customers to support their resumption of flight operations. dnata Catering also continued to grow its retail food business with ready-made meals developed by Snapfresh Australia launched in Aldi and Costco stores nationwide.

Revenue from dnata’s Travel Services division has significantly grown by 434% to AED 694 million (US$ 189 million). The reported total transaction value (TTV) of travel services sold increased by 912% to AED 2.3 billion (US$ 632 million), a dramatic reversal from last year. These increases reflect last year’s abnormal situation where the business saw high levels of COVID-19-related booking cancellations.

During the year, dnata introduced several new products and services in the UAE, capitalising on its market expertise, Dubai’s open borders for international travel, the city’s hosting of Expo 2020 as well as other major conferences and sporting events.

For its corporate travel customers, dnata partnered with ExpensePoint to offer an advanced expense reporting solution; renewed a partnership with one of the world’s largest VAT reclaim specialists that will bring additional saving opportunities for duty travel claims; and implemented hybrid meetings and events solutions to provide customers a sustainable alternative to hosting corporate engagements during lockdown.

In the UK, dnata’s Travel Republic brand introduced a new ‘Secure Trust Account’ for package holiday customers that guarantees prompt refunds for customers who have to cancel their flight-inclusive package holiday, as funds are kept secure in a separate account.

dnata also launched its Gold Medal brand in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia this year, offering its extensive portfolio of travel products to independent travel agents.

Emirates aircraft photo gallery:

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.

Sky Express aircraft photo gallery:

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:

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 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 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.

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United Airlines and Emirates are set to announce a new codeshare agreement according to a report by Reuters.

More from Reuters:

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/united-emirates-set-announce-codeshare-agreement-source-2022-08-30/

Emirates today announced plans to debut its newly retrofitted A380s featuring its latest Premium Economy cabins to five new cities from December – New York JFK, San Francisco, Melbourne, Auckland and Singapore. The airline will also add more Premium Economy seats on services to London Heathrow and Sydney, as its newly enhanced aircraft sporting refreshed cabins roll into scheduled service.

The airline aims to offer customers more opportunities to experience its highly acclaimed Premium Economy product, and its latest deployment plans will also see 85 A380s back in the sky by December, well-timed to serve the year-end travel demand.

Emirates’ enhanced A380s with Premium Economy to New York JFK, San Francisco, Melbourne, Auckland and Singapore will operate as follows:

• To New York JFK, Emirates will operate with its newly retrofitted A380 on EK203 and EK 204, starting from 1 December.
• To Auckland, Emirates will debut its Premium Economy cabin on EK 448 and EK 449, starting 15 January 2023.
• From 1 February 2023, Melbourne will become the second Australian destination to be served with the signature Emirates A380 featuring Premium Economy. Services will be deployed on EK 406 and EK 407.
• San Francisco will become the second US destination to be served by the retrofitted A380 with refreshed interiors on EK 225 and EK 226, starting on 15 February 2023.
• Emirates’ enhanced A380 with Premium Economy will land in Singapore for the first time on 1 March 2023, operating as EK 354 and EK 355.

Emirates will also update its schedules to London Heathrow, Sydney and New York JFK with its retrofitted A380 aircraft operating on the following services:

• From 15 December 2022, Sydney will become the first city in the Emirates network to offer Premium Economy seats on all flights, with the introduction of the airline’s retrofitted aircraft on EK 414 and EK 415.
• From 1 January 2023, London Heathrow will receive its third daily service with Premium Economy, with the new product debuting on EK 005 and EK 006.
• From 15 March 2023, Emirates will operate its second A380 with Premium Economy to New York JFK on EK 201 and EK 202.

Emirates will also start A380 services with a Premium Economy debut to Christchurch from 26 March 2023, as an extension of the Dubai to Sydney service, operating with EK 412 and EK 413.

Scaling up A380 operations

With travel demand the strongest it’s been in more than two years, Emirates will provide customers more choice and a better experience as it ramps up A380 services to 42 destinations by the end of March 2023. In tandem, the airline is optimising its network to meet robust demand and enhancing its existing schedules to over 400 A380 departures from Dubai, offering 460,000 weekly A380 seats by March 2023, including 81,000 seats across its premium cabins, offering the very best in customer comfort.

By year end, the airline will be serving close to a third of its network with its flagship on 85 A380s as it unlocks more destinations like Houston, Bengaluru, Perth, Auckland, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, with additional cities to be announced in the coming weeks. With an expanded list of cities, Emirates will have recovered 75% of its pre-pandemic A380 network. The airline is also adding frequencies to popular cities already served by its flagship, bringing greater resiliency and stability to its operation.

Raising the bar for premium air travel

Since Emirates debuted its Premium Economy Class to London, Paris and Sydney, customer response has been overwhelmingly positive with demand exceeding expectations, demonstrating its appeal and willingness of travellers to trade-up and try the quiet luxury and meticulously customised experience it offers.

On a four-class Emirates A380, the Premium Economy cabin is located at the front of the main deck with 56 seats laid out in a 2-4-2 configuration. In the cabin, every inch of space anticipates customer needs with a generous seat pitch and width for working and relaxing, and customised features that offer function and convenience like in-seat charging points and a side cocktail table. The experience is rounded off with expertly curated in-flight amenities, an inventive menu and extensive beverage options.

The Emirates A380 experience has long been taking passenger comfort to new levels, with an extensive suite of products that turn the journey itself into a destination, including one of the industry’s largest screens for customers to enjoy the airline’s award-winning in-flight entertainment system, ice. Customers travelling in First and Business Class cabins can enjoy the aircraft’s signature features such as the popular Onboard Lounge and fully flat seats in Business Class, as well as private suites and Shower Spas in First Class.

Emirates recently announced plans to kick-off of its fleet retrofit programme, consisting of a multi-billion dollar investment to ensure customers continue to have the best experience in the sky. Starting from November, the airline will begin intensive work to upgrade and retrofit the interior cabins of 67 Airbus A380 and 53 Boeing 777 aircraft, with one aircraft rolling out into service every 16 days. By 2025, nearly 4,000 new Premium Economy seats will be installed, 728 First Class suites refurbished and over 5,000 Business Class seats upgraded to a new style and design.

Emirates is the world’s largest operator of the A380, with 118 double-decker aircraft in its fleet. Since A6-EVF, the first A380 reactivated in 2020 began flying, the operating fleet has clocked in more than 31,000 trips worldwide, carrying over 10 million passengers.

In other news, Emirates carried more than 10 million passengers on nearly 35,000 flights to 130 destinations this summer.

Having anticipated the strong return of travel demand, Emirates worked closely with its airport partners to operate as scheduled, minimise travel disruptions, and take customers to their planned holidays and trips to see friends and family across the world over the summer.

The airline also ramped up operations to serve customer demand during this busy period, reinstating daily services to London Stansted, and increasing flights to 33 cities on popular routes across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as to favourite holiday spots like the Seychelles, Maldives, Mexico and Miami.

In June, Emirates added Tel Aviv to its global network and in July it added a third daily flight to London Gatwick to serve travellers impacted by capacity cuts at Heathrow.

The iconic Emirates A380, the world’s largest commercial jet, was also deployed to serve high customer demand at over 30 cities around its network.

On ground, the airline re-opened and was operating 32 signature Emirates Lounges, including 25 dedicated lounges at major airports across its network, to provide frequent flyers and premium travellers with a comfortable haven to rest and refresh during their journey. The airline had also reinstated its trademark complimentary Chauffeur Drive airport transfers for First and Business Class customers in nearly all cities it serves.

Dubai International (DXB) is the world’s busiest international airport. With millions of Emirates customers arriving, departing, and transiting through DXB each month, the airline ensured smooth operations at its 24/7 hub with close co-ordination and additional resources deployed throughout the airport eco-system.

Travellers benefited from the airline’s investments in services and digital initiatives to reduce wait-times at the airport and facilitating a smooth flow for customers to complete their formalities and get to where they are going.

During the summer months:

• over 3.8 million travellers across the network checked-in online via emirates.com and the Emirates App
• over 500,000 travellers used the 22 self-service check-in kiosks and 38 baggage drop facilities in Dubai Terminal 3
• over 11,000 travellers utilised Emirates’ home check-in services, which are complimentary for First Class passengers departing Dubai, entirely skipping the airport check in queue and proceeding straight to immigration

Emirates continues to rebuild its network and capacity as travel restrictions ease. It is currently operating at 74% of its pre-pandemic network/capacity and plans to increase that to 80% by year end. The airline is also commencing in November a US$2 billion retrofit programme to equip 120 aircraft with its latest onboard products.

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