Emirates to launch daily non-stop Perth-Dubai flights

Emirates, the Dubai-based international airline, today announced that daily non-stop Perth-Dubai services will start on Thursday 15 May 2003.

For cargo customers, the three extra flights also represent an increase in cargo capacity of 45 to 50 tonnes per week, or 15 to 17 tonnes per flight. All flights will be operated on a Boeing 777-200 aircraft.

Emirates has been offering flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Eddie Lim, Area Manager Australia New Zealand, said that the increase in flights to a daily service within nine months of the route launch was a result of strong demand and overall support of the airline from West Australians.

"In recent weeks, strong inbound and outbound demand has led to Emirates speeding up its Perth expansion plan and we will now commence a daily service on 15 May. The added frequencies will assist the tourism and travel industries by freeing up to 900 additional seats to Perth each week," he said.

The expansion means that Emirates will fly daily from three Australian cities - Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, a total of 21 flights weekly. On 26 October, a fourth destination will be added when daily services start between Brisbane and Dubai.

Flights from Sydney and Melbourne are currently routed via Singapore, but in a further development, flights between Sydney and Dubai will become non-stop on 26 October, when Emirates introduces the new ultra long range Airbus A340-500 aircraft to the route.

Emirates' strong commitment to its Australian customers is demonstrated not only in the growth of its services but also its sponsorships of Collingwood Football Club, the Melbourne Carnival and the Australian Jockey Club's Autumn Carnival. In March, Emirates also announced that it would be Principal Sponsor of the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra,  as part of a three-orchestra agreement with the Sydney, Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.

The additional flights will operate remain at the same times as the current ones. Flight EK 421 departs Perth at 22.30 hours, arriving in Dubai at 05.40  the following morning. Return flight EK 430 to Dubai departs Dubai at 02.35 hours, arriving in Perth at 17.25 hours.

Emirates' Perth-Dubai non-stop flights provide improved access to and from 15 European destinations. Connections are available within two to three hours to London (Heathrow and Gatwick), Birmingham, Manchester, Paris, Nice, Rome, Milan, Istanbul, Athens, Cyprus, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Dusseldorf and Malta.

Emirates currently flies to 64 destinations in 45 countries in the Middle East, Far East, Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific. In 2004 Emirates will take another step towards becoming a truly global airline when it launches services to North America.