EMIRATES HAS ANNOUNCED it is to roll out larger planes on its Dublin to Dubai route, only three weeks after services began – after describing the Dublin service as one of its most successful launches ever.
The new service, which made its first flight on January 9, has already seen over 90 per cent of its seats occupied on average for every flight so far.
Now, only three weeks after it launched the route, Emirates says it is to increase its capacity on the route by over 50 per cent, by changing the aircraft it uses for the service.
While the route is currently flown with an Airbus A330-200, which has a capacity of 237, from July it will be served by a Boeing 777-300ER which can house 360 seats – including 42 business class passengers and eight first class private suites.
The rollout of the larger aircraft on the daily route means that the route will have space for over 1700 more passengers each week, considering the extra passenger load available on each return flight every day.
The larger Boeing aircraft can also carry up to 25 tonnes of cargo, compared to the 15 tonnes available in the Airbus.
Emirates’ senior vice-president for commercial operations in Europe and Russia, Salem Obaidalla, said the capacity provided by the Airbus coverage would ordinarily be enough to cater for the first two or three years of a new route.
However, Dublin is exceeding our expectations much faster than was predicted and we need more seats to satisfy demand.
Obaidalla added that the larger aircraft meant “more good news for the Irish economy – we can bring extra visitors to the country and carry additional cargo.”
Emirates’ tourism arm, Emirates Holidays, is set to feature Dublin in its 2012 brochures, increasing its exposure of the Irish route.
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