Emirates Airline, Dubai’s flagship carrier, will launch three new routes in the next six months as it looks to compete with its Gulf rivals.
The carrier, one of the world’s biggest airlines by passenger numbers, will add Adelaide, Lyon and Warsaw to its list of destinations in addition to increasing its flights to Perth to triple daily, the airline said in a statment.
The Dubai-based airline will launch four flights a week to Adelaide, its fifth destination in Australia, on Nov 1, increasing to daily from Feb 1. Flights to Lyon, France will begin Dec 5 and Warsaw, Poland on Feb 6.
Emirates, which competes against Abu Dhabi’s Etihad and Qatar Airways, is building up its fleet and number of routes as it seeks to establish Dubai as a long-haul travel hub and win passengers from European carriers.
The carrier, which is among the ten biggest airlines in the world by passenger numbers, has announced the addition of nine new routes so far this year. New destinations include Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Barcelona.
Thierry Antinori, executive vice-president for passenger sales at Emirates Airline, said last month he sees no reason to slow the airline’s European growth despite concerns of a economic slump.
“We’re monitoring, but till now, there is no reason to change our strategy, and we’ll continue to expand to Europe,” he told Bloomberg.
“If necessary, we can re-deploy our fleet, but a lot of passengers flying on the route between Dubai and Europe are also passengers coming from Australia, India, Middle East and the Far East. The share of these passengers will grow because these customers are interested by a lower euro, to spend vacations, or to travel to these countries because it makes traveling less expensive for them,” he added.
The airline plans to grow its capacity 18 per cent this year compared to a 15 per cent increase in 2011, said Antinori.
