Emirates to increase services to South East Asia

Emirates is preparing to launch a fifth daily, non-stop service between Dubai and Bangkok. From 31 March 2013, Emirates will operate 35 flights a week, between Dubai and Bangkok, plus a daily Airbus A380 service between Bangkok and Hong Kong, and a daily flight between Bangkok and Sydney, which connects on to Christchurch.

These services, along with the Phuket flights, take the number of weekly Emirates departures from Thailand to 56.

Marking the start of the airline’s fourth daily service on 31 March, between Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, while a third daily Manila service started on 1 January, and a third daily Jakarta service will commence on 1 March.

Elsewhere in the region, the Singapore service received a boost in capacity following the introduction of a 517-seat A380 to the route in December 2012, while flights from Ho Chi Minh City were launched in June last year.

 “Emirates has been operating flights to Bangkok since 1990 and this capacity increase combined with the launch of the Phuket service in early December, demonstrates what an important market Thailand is to us,” said Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Far East and Australasia, Salem Obaidalla.

“This new service will benefit Thailand’s tourism sector by bringing even more visitors from the likes of the Middle East and traditionally strong markets like Europe and Australasia. In addition, both our passengers and cargo customers will have the added flexibility of being able to choose from five flights a day between Dubai and Bangkok, and onwards to our expanding route network.”

Thai exporters, as well as their trade partners, will also benefit from the new service which will provide an additional 105 tonnes of weekly capacity in each direction and take Emirates SkyCargo’s weekly cargo capacity each way to 750 tonnes.

Thai exports include electronic parts, garments, cosmetic products, pharmaceuticals and perishables, while goods travelling in the other direction include vehicles and automotive parts, clothing and general foodstuffs.

Operated by a three-class Airbus 330-200L, EK376 will depart Dubai at 03:40 and arrive in Bangkok at 13:00. The return flight, EK377, will depart at 15:25 the same day and arrive at Dubai International Airport at 18:30.

From 1 September, the service will be operated by a Boeing 777-300 ER, also in a three-class configuration.