Emirates has resumed its twice a day service from Dublin to Dubai following a two and a half year hiatus.
The announcement means that once again, Emirates will connect up to 720 people every day from Ireland with more than 130 destinations such as Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Auckland, Melbourne, the Seychelles and the Maldives.
The reinstatement of the second daily flight, which had been suspended in March 2020 with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, is good news not only for eastbound leisure and business passengers from Ireland, but for Ireland’s tourism industry too.
With additional capacity on the Dublin route, there are once again more options for visitors looking to visit Ireland with Emirates, which marks ten years of operations on the Dublin – Dubai route this year.
Enda Corneille, Emirates’ outgoing country manager for Ireland, confirmed that the Dublin office had seen a fourfold increase in business to Dubai for the first seven months of 2022.
“The appetite for international travel has surpassed our expectations and traffic to Dubai for the current period is up 448% on the same period last year,” Mr Corneille said.
“The popularity of Dubai with its year-round sunshine, outdoor lifestyle and wide range of activities and accommodation options has surged and it is one of the top destinations for Irish tourists. But, in addition to Dubai, we have seen huge growth in bookings for Australia as families and friends reconnect following the reopening of Australian borders. While we all know how tough the past two years have been, we have a lot of very happy passengers onboard right now.
Mr Corneille added: “This demand has been building for several months and once we could ensure that our second flight would be supported with all of the on-the-ground infrastructure and logistics needed for us to provide a premium service, we set the September 1 date. I would like to thank all of the stakeholders who have helped make this happen. We have been looking forward to this day for a very long time.”
MrCorneille confirmed that bookings for winter 2022/23 are already strong and the five most popular destinations for customers from Ireland this year are Dubai, Sydney, Melbourne, Bangkok and Mauritius.
It has been a busy week for Emirates in Ireland; with it holding two cabin crew recruitment drives in Dublin and Galway and the announcement that Mr Corneille is to step down as its head in Ireland after 8 years in the job.
During the early days of the pandemic Emirates was operating just two flights a week from Dublin, growing to four on the back of demand for its cargo business. A daily service resumed on October 1 2021 and from today, the daily schedule with a flight time of around 7.5 hours is as follows:
- EK162 departs Dublin at 14.20, arriving in Dubai at 00.45
- EK 164 departs Dublin at 22.05, arriving in Dubai at 08.30 (resuming today, September 1)
- EK161 departs Dubai at 07.15, arriving in Dublin at 12.10
- EK163 departs Dubai at 15.15, arriving in Dublin at 20.10 (resuming today, September 1)
For further information www.emirates.ie
