Since 9th January Emirates has been flying daily from Dublin non-stop to Dubai – and already there’s a demand for even more seats! Early load factors were so high that within three weeks Emirates had announced that it will introduce a 360-seat Boeing 777-300ER from 1st July. This will increase capacity by 52% from the 237-seat Airbus A330-200 that currently operates the route.
The Dublin service has been one of Emirates’ most successful route launches ever. “Normally, the A330 would provide enough capacity for the first two to three years of a new route operation,” said Salem Obaidalla, Emirates’ Senior Vice-President of Commercial Operations, Europe and Russian Federation. “However, Dublin is exceeding our expectations much faster than was predicted and we need more seats to satisfy demand.”
On arriving in Dublin on 9th January on the inaugural flight, Emirates’ President, Tim Clark, also envisaged a double-daily service: “Most of our European routes have gone double-daily within three to four years,” he said. “Passenger and freight demand have been very strong, with load factors above 90% for the first couple of months. We could even turn into profit on the route within the first six months – and that’s very good going,” he added.
