UPFRONT
EMIRATES’ PREMIUM ECONOMY SEATS Anti-stain leather Wood panel finishing Six-way adjustable headrests Calf rests and footrest 40-inch pitch 19.5 inches wide 8-inch recline to cradle position In-seat charging points Wide dining table and side cocktail table. 13.3-inch personal seat-back
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flynas launches first international flights to AlUla
Emirates to roll out Premium Economy across fleet EMIRATES WILL RETROFIT 105 of
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its modern wide-body aircraft with its Premium Economy product. The 18-month retrofit programme, scheduled to begin at the end of 2022, will see 52 Emirates A380s and 53 Boeing 777s fitted with the new cabin class. The airline is also considering installing a new Business Class product on its Boeing 777 aircraft, with customised seats configured in a 1-2-1 layout. At the end of the retrofit programme, Emirates will have 111 Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 aircraft offering Premium Economy seats, including the six A380s that would
have been delivered to the airline with four cabin classes by December 2021. On the Emirates Boeing 777, five rows of Economy class seats located just behind Business Class will be removed to install 24 Premium Economy seats laid out in 2-4-2 configuration. On the Emirates A380, 56 Premium Economy seats will be installed at the front of the main deck, also in 2-4-2 configuration. By the end of December 2021, Emirates’ A380s with Premium Economy will be operating on the airline’s flights to Frankfurt, London Heathrow, New York JFK and Paris.
DXB PASSENGER TRAFFIC SURGES PASSENGER TRAFFIC at Dubai International (DXB) reached 20.7 million in the year to date
to October, which operator Dubai Airports attributes to “changes in travel restrictions in key global markets”, generating “renewed confidence in the prospects of international travel”. “Significant market developments such as the UK’s vaccination-based travel programme, the resumption of flights to several important destinations in Australasia and the relaxation of restrictions for travel between India and the USA have all contributed to an upward revision in our forecast for the year by an additional two million passengers to 28.7 million,” said Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths. He added that it was in response to this sustained increase in demand that the final piece of aviation infrastructure at DXB that was hibernated in response to the global pandemic, Concourse A, would reopen before the end of November 2021.
FLYNAS, A SAUDI ARABIAN
national air carrier, launched the first direct international flights into AlUla International Airport on November 19, with services operating three times weekly from Dubai International and twice weekly from Kuwait International Airport. An expansion of domestic services to AlUla increases frequencies to four times weekly from Riyadh and three times weekly from both Jeddah and Dammam.
DXB FAST FACTS The airport is currently serving 83 per cent of the destinations in 99 per cent of the countries on 108 per cent of the airlines compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. Flight movements in Q3 surged to 56,266, propelling the number of flight movements recorded between January and September to 155,706, up 17.1 per cent. South Asia retained its rank as DXB’s largest contributor of traffic led by India (2.8 million pax) and Pakistan (one million pax). Egypt was ranked third with 753,000 passengers.
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DECEMBER 2021
