Emirates Announces Network Updates for 2019

Emirates has announced adjustments to its operational schedules in 2019 to minimise the impact of the closure of Dubai International Airport’s Southern Runway in April and May 2019, and to respond to global travel demand trends. The airline also outlined its fleet plans for the year.

President Emirates Airline, Sir Tim Clark said, “At Emirates, we pride ourselves on being a customer-focused airline with a commercially-driven business model.

“We invest in a modern and efficient aircraft fleet so we can offer industry-leading comforts to our customers, and we are agile in deploying our aircraft to destinations where it best serves customer demand.

“The changes we are implementing to our network schedules in 2019 are in line with this approach, taking into consideration global market dynamics and operational limitations including the maintenance work on Dubai Airport’s Southern Runway. Through the year, we will continue to keep a close watch on global markets and will maintain our flexibility to optimize the usage of our aircraft assets.”

A significant number of scheduled Emirates flights will be impacted by the closure of Dubai International Airport’s Southern Runway for maintenance work between 16 April and 30 May 2019.

Given the limitations around operating flights using a single runway at its hub, many Emirates flights will be cancelled, re-timed or have the operating aircraft changed in order to reduce impact on customers. This will result in up to 48 Emirates aircraft not being utilized, with a 25% reduction in the overall number of flights operated by the airline during the 45-day period.

Emirates will deploy additional flights to several markets in Africa starting in June 2019. The additional services will satisfy the increased demand that the airline has witnessed in these markets, and will offer customers even more seamless connections between these destinations and Emirates’ global network through Dubai. Cities in Africa that will be served by additional Emirates flights include:

Casablanca, Morocco: Emirates will operate a second daily flight starting 01 June 2019 to Casablanca. The service will be operated by Emirates’ Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which will complement the airline’s existing daily Airbus A380 flight.

Abuja, Nigeria: Three additional flights will be operated every week on Emirates’ Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to Abuja starting 01 June 2019 increasing the frequency to the Nigerian city to a daily service.
Accra, Ghana: Emirates will also augment its current flight frequency to the Ghanaian capital with four additional Boeing 777-300ER flights a week bringing Emirates’ total service to 11 weekly flights to Accra effective 02 June 2019.