After making headlines around the world this week with a sky-high campaign celebrating the UAE's removal from the UK red list, Emirates has announced it is ramping up flight operations to more destinations across the UK, the US and Africa.
The Dubai airline will restore and scale up flight operations from DXB to several places on its network over the next two months.
By mid-October, Emirates plans to restore capacity across 29 cities and be flying to more than 120 destinations worldwide. This will mean the airline is operating at nearly 90 per cent of its pre-pandemic network.
“As international borders reopen and travel restrictions ease, Emirates continues to expand its network safely and sustainably, matching capacity with demand in line with market dynamics and operating conditions,” a statement from the airline read on Wednesday.
73 weekly flights from Dubai to London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester
A major part of the airline's expansion comes following the UAE’s removal from the UK’s red list. Emirates has started ramping up flights from Dubai to several cities in the UK.
From mid-October, Emirates will operate a total of 73 flights per week from DXB to four destinations in the UK. This includes six daily flights to London Heathrow.
From Wednesday, Emirates is adding a third daily flight to London Heathrow, operated via the world's largest passenger jet, the Airbus A380. For the remainder of the month and into September, the airline will gradually add more flights to the UK capital. By mid-October, it will have restored London operations to six flights per day, four of which will be serviced by double-decker superjumbos.
To Manchester, Emirates will operate double daily flights via its A380 jets by the middle of October. The airline is also restarting flights to Birmingham, with 10 weekly services scheduled to be in operation before the end of October.
Further north, Emirates restarted flights from Dubai to Glasgow on Wednesday, flying four times per week to the Scottish city. By October, Emirates will increase this to a daily service.
No hotel quarantine for UAE travellers
With the UAE now on the UK’s amber list, travellers flying to Britain no longer need to quarantine in a hotel. Self-quarantine is still necessary for 10 days for most travellers from the UAE, as the UK does not currently recognise vaccines issued outside the UK, Europe and the US.
Passengers flying to and staying in England can use the government’s test-to-release system to end their quarantine if they test negative after an additional PCR test taken on day five.
The UK is not on the UAE's green list, so any travellers headed for Abu Dhabi after landing in Dubai from London, Glasgow, Birmingham or Manchester will need to quarantine.
Emirates ramps up flights to the US and adds Africa connections
It's not only the UK market that Emirates is ramping up services for. The airline also has plans to boost flights between Dubai and the US.
Emirates flies to 12 cities in the US, including its newly launched route to Miami. Throughout August, more flights are set to be added to Houston, Boston and San Francisco to accommodate for what the airline is calling a “seasonal influx of travellers”.
From Friday, Emirates will add more seats on its Dubai to New York JFK route, too. The airline operates four times per week to the John F Kennedy International Airport in Queens, and will now do so using its A380 with capacity for more than 500 passengers.
There will also be more flight options for travellers flying to or from South Africa. Emirates is boosting its services to Johannesburg from a daily flight to 11 flights per week. It is also adding four linked flights with Durban.
Alongside three weekly services to Cape Town, Emirates says that passengers flying in and out of its three South African hubs can now easily connect to destinations across Europe, the Middle East, West Asia and the US.
Travellers from South Africa can fly Emirates via Dubai to reach their final destination, however passengers who have been in South Africa in the past 14 days are not currently permitted to leave the airport to enter Dubai.
Elsewhere in Africa, Emirates has reinstated capacity on flights to and from Lusaka, Zambia (linked with Harare, Zimbabwe) and to Entebbe, Uganda, with each city now receiving five weekly flights from Dubai.
