Emirates to add flights from Dubai to Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta and Sydney from Dec 2009

Emirates Airline, the national airline of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has announced that it is increasing capacity by 13% to 4 cities in South-East Asia and Australia between December 2009 and January 2010.

The airline will add 17 weekly flights as well as new aircraft on routes from Dubai to Bangkok (Thailand), Manila (the Philippines), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Sydney (Australia) – bringing its service in the Asia-Pacific region to 187 flights a week.

Emirates will be adding 2 additional flights to Manila, a 4^th daily service to Bangkok, 1 additional service to Jakarta, and a 3^rd daily service to Sydney.

Emirates said it is increasing capacity to locations which are fast recovering from the global economic recession.

In a statement, Richard Jewsbury, Emirates’ senior vice-president (commercial operations – Far East and Australasia) said the Middle East is one of the few regions continuing to witness steady growth in air traffic. There has been an increase of 8% in passenger demand in the Middle East since the start of 2009.

Following are the details of the additional flights that Emirates is planning for the 4 cities of Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta and Sydney:

Bangkok: The 4^th daily service of Emirates to Bangkok starts on December 2, 2009. A state-of-the-art Boeing 777-300 aircraft, with a 3-class configuration, will be used for the Bangkok flight – 12 seats in the first-class, 42 in the business-class and 310 seats in the economy-class.

The extension of exemption visa fees for Thailand till March 2010 is expected to result in more tourists visiting Thailand, according to Emirates.

Manila: Emirates will increase, from December 2009, the number of it s existing service to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, to include Thursdays and Mondays. Later, the number of services will be raised from 12 flights a week to 14 flights a week – that is, 2 flights daily on every day of the week.

The additional flights from Dubai to Manila are to be operated using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with 42 seats in the business-class and 400 seats in the economy-class. The cargo capacity is 16.7 tonnes.

Jakarta: From December 6, 2009, Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, will get an additional service from Dubai, taking the total number of Emirates flights a week to Jakarta to 11.

The new service will operate from Dubai to Jakarta every Sunday, and return to Dubai the following day. The Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on the Dubai-Jakarta route will have a 2-class configuration – 42 seats in the business-class and 400 seats in the economy-class. The cargo capacity will be 16.7 tonnes.

Sydney: Emirates’ new service to Sydney, Australia, is to begin on December 2, 2009. The flights will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

From January 2, 2010, the service will be enhanced to operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

According to Emirates, departure of the new flights from Sydney has been timed to offer same-day service to Europe. The additional services, combined with the interline agreement that Emirates signed recently with Virgin Blue – which facilitates convenient domestic connections within Australia – will give increased access for the passengers from the Middle East travelling to Australia as well as for those travelling from Australia to Dubai and beyond.