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Dubai: Emirates to increase flights to 29 cities as travel demand picks up

Dubai - Dubai carrier boosting connectivity on European, American and African routes after easing of travel rules.

Emirates airline on Wednesday said it’s ramping operations and boosting connectivity in response to the spike in travel demand across its network after the UAE eased entry protocols for 12 countries and UK removed the UAE from the “red list” countries.

The Dubai-based carrier will restore capacity across 29 cities on its network on over 270 flights as well as fine-tuning its schedules to boost frequencies and capacity as demand proliferates for international leisure and business travel.

By October, the airline will increase its services to 73 weekly flights to the UK, including a six times a day London Heathrow operation; double daily A380 flights to Manchester, 10 weekly services to Birmingham and daily services to Glasgow.

From August 11, Emirates began serving London Heathrow with three daily flights, all operated by its flagship A380. Throughout August and September, Emirates will gradually increase its operations to London Heathrow, and by the middle of October, the airline will have restored its operations to six daily flights, of which four will be served by the A380.

Emirates currently flies to 12 cities in the US on over 70 weekly flights and will be adding additional frequencies to Houston, Boston and San Francisco over the course of August to accommodate for the seasonal influx of travellers.

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The airline will also be boosting capacity on its four weekly services to New York JFK to its flagship A380 from August 13, improving travel options for customers connecting to/from the major US city from across the airline's network. Emirates will continue to make schedule and capacity adjustments to match its services with customer travel trends.

Emirates has increased flights to Johannesburg from daily to 11 weekly flights, with the addition of four linked flights with Durban, and the airline also flies to and from Cape Town with three weekly services. flying in and out of Emirates' three South African gateways can safely connect to an array of onwards connections to Europe, the Middle East, West Asia and the United States.

The airline has also reinstated capacity on its flights to and from Lusaka (linked with Harare) and Entebbe with five weekly flights each.

The airline has resumed passenger services to over 120 destinations, recovering close to 90 per cent of its pre-pandemic network.

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com