Since the beginning of the financial year, UAE flag carrier Emirates has boosted its overall operations by 31% (total ASKMs).
With an aggressive network expansion underway globally, the major world airline has further plans to ramp up seat capacity in its latest published northern summer schedule starting 26 March 2023.
Aggressive network expansion
In the past months, Emirates has planned and executed the rapid growth of its network operations. This includes the reintroduction of services to 5 cities, and the inauguration of flights to 1 new destination – Tel Aviv.
The expansion plan has seen the addition of 251 weekly flights onto existing routes; and the continuation of a significant roll-out of service enhancements both in the air and on the ground.
Emirates comments
A spokesman for the airline noted the strong return of air travel demand, despite a relatively soft opening to the financial year, and discussed the aggressive and proactive expansion policy.
Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer said: “Emirates continues to expand its global network and deploy its capacity to meet travel demand across the world.”
“Our financial year started relatively quietly as we held back our ramp up until the planned northern runway rehabilitation program at Dubai International airport was completed in June. From July 2022 onwards, it’s been non-stop expansion.”
He added: “Customer demand has been very strong, and our forward bookings are also robust.”
“Emirates is working hard on several fronts – to bring back operating capacity as quickly as the ecosystem can manage, while also upgrading our fleet and product to ensure our customers always enjoy the best possible Emirates experience. “
“So far, 4 of our A380 aircraft have been completely refurbished with our new cabin interiors and Premium Economy seats, and more will enter service as our US$2 billion cabin and service enhancement program picks up pace.”
Network expansion in summary
In the coming months, established routes to Europe, Australia and Africa will be served with more Emirates flights, while in East Asia, more cities are seeing route restarts.
Upcoming A380 deployments in Northern Summer 2023 season:
Emirates continues to scale up its A380 operations with the reintroduction of the iconic double-decker across its network: Glasgow (from 26 March), Casablanca from (15 April), Beijing (from 01 May), Shanghai (from 04 June), Nice (from 1 June), Birmingham (from 1 July), Kuala Lumpur (from 01 August), and Taipei (from 01 August).
Upcoming route enhancements by region:
Europe
- Amsterdam: from 14 to 19 weekly flights starting 02 April.
- Athens: Addition of a daily seasonal service to serve summer demand between 01 June to 30 September.
- Bologna: from 5 flights a week to a daily service starting 01 May.
- Budapest: from 5 flights a week to a daily service by 01 June.
- London: start of 2nd daily service to London Stansted on 01 May. This will take Emirates’ London operations to 11 daily flights – including 6 times daily to London Heathrow and 3 times daily to Gatwick.
- Venice: from 5 to 6 flights a week from 26 March, increasing to a daily service from 01 June.
Africa
- Cairo: from 25 to 28 weekly flights by 29October.
- Dar es Salaam: from 5 flights a week to daily flights starting 01 May.
- Entebbe: from 6 flights a week to daily flights starting 01 July.
Australia and New Zealand
Emirates’ non-stop Australia flights will return to pre-pandemic levels to Sydney from 01 May, Melbourne from 26 March, and Brisbane on 01 June.
- Brisbane: An additional daily service starting 01 June will take Emirates to 14 flights per week to Brisbane.
- Christchurch: restart of daily service from Dubai via Sydney from 26 March.
- Melbourne: addition of 3rd daily service to Melbourne from 26 March via Singapore. This adds capacity to Melbourne and re-establishes connectivity between Singapore and Melbourne. The other 2 daily flights from Melbourne fly non-stop to Dubai.
- Sydney: addition of 3rd daily non-stop service from 01 May.
East Asia
- Bangkok: Addition of 5th daily service from 01 August.
- Beijing: To commence daily non-stop Boeing 777-300ER service from 15 March, upgrading to an A380 effective 01 May. A second daily service will commence effective 01 September with an A380.
- Hong Kong: Addition of a daily non-stop flight from 29 March. This increases Emirates’ operations to 14 weekly flights including its existing daily Dubai-Bangkok-Hong Kong service.
- Kuala Lumpur: Addition of a third daily service from 01 June.
- Tokyo: Resumption of services to Tokyo Haneda with daily flights on 02 April. This takes Emirates’ Japan operations to 21 daily flights including a daily A380 service to Tokyo-Narita and a daily Boeing 777 service to Osaka.
