UAE carriers set to connect 49 cities in next 10 days

Dubai - Emirates will be operating passenger flights to 29 destinations and Etihad will fly to 20 destinations.

The UAE's two leading carriers, Emirates and Etihad, on Thursday announced that they will be linking 49 destinations across Asia, Europe and Australia in the next 10 days as airlines increase flights and resume transits with the easing of restrictions on air travel.

The UAE government on Wednesday decided to resume transit flights by national carriers Etihad, Emirates, Fly Dubai and Air Arabia via Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah airports.

Emirates will be operating passenger flights to 29 destinations and Etihad will fly to 20 destinations. But the numbers are expected increase substantially in coming weeks as Emirates plans to add 50 destinations in this month while budget carriers flydubai and Air Arabia could also resume regular flights.

Emirates on Thursday said it will offer passenger services to 16 more cities from June 15 and also resume transit flights, taking its total number of flights to 29. It will launch flights to Bahrain, Manchester, Zurich, Vienna, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dublin, New York JFK, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, Taipei, Hong Kong, Perth and Brisbane from June 15.

In addition, it will add three Pakistani cities of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad from next week. Other destinations where it is operating are London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Chicago, Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne and Manila.

"Customers can book to fly between destinations in the Asia-Pacific and Europe or the Americas, with a convenient connection in Dubai, as long as they meet travel and immigration entry requirements of their destination country," the Dubai-based carrier said.

Emirates is already offering connecting flights between the UK and Australia.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad announced that it will be linking 20 cities across Europe, Asia and Australia from June 10. It also recently linked London Heathrow to Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney via Abu Dhabi.

Transfer connections via Abu Dhabi will now be available from Jakarta, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Melbourne, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo to major cities across Europe including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, London Heathrow, Madrid, Milan, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and Zurich.

"The new transfer services will make it possible for those travelling on the airline's current network of special flights to connect easily through the UAE capital onwards to key global destinations," it said.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, CEO and chairman of Emirates and chairman of flydubai, welcomed the decision to open up airports for transit flights.

He said in a tweet on Wednesday that flydubai will also shortly announce the resumption of passengers flights to more cities with connections to and through Dubai.

The budget carrier is currently operating only special repatriation flights to around 11 destinations.

Sharjah-based Air Arabia had not responded to queries at the time of filing of this report.

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com