Dubai's Al Maktoum sees huge Q2 air traffic surge

Passenger and cargo traffic at Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central (DWC) registered a major surge in the second quarter of 2014 following the temporary shift of an estimated 600 flights per week from Dubai International during a major runway upgrade project.

Between April and June, DWC recorded 475,992 passengers, a sharp rise from 102,137 passengers that used the facility in the first quarter this year.

The spike resulted from the temporary operation of select flights of a number of airlines including flydubai, Malaysian Airlines, Royal Brunei, PAL Express, Qatar Airways, Gulf Air, Jazeera Airways, and East Horizon.

Freight volumes also surged by triple-digits in the second quarter, recording 199,751 tonnes, up 308 percent from the 48,955 tonnes recorded during the corresponding period in 2013. The year to date freight volumes reached 276,567 tonnes, up 168.7 percent from 102,929 tonnes recorded during the first half of 2013.

The spike in cargo volumes this quarter resulted from the move of all Emirates SkyCargo freighter operations to DWC in May 2014. This follows a similar move by several scheduled freighter services including Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and Cargolux that moved their operations to DWC late last year.

Propelled by the increased activity, aircraft movements also climbed sharply in the second quarter of 2014 to 13,697 movements, up 123 percent from the 6,133 movements in the corresponding period of 2013.

The year to date flight movements reached 23,662, compared to 10,237 during the first half of 2013, an increase of 131.1 percent.

Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said: “We were particularly pleased with the airport’s ability to smoothly absorb the rush in traffic and impress passengers with its speed, convenience and efficiency.

"While the growth in cargo will continue at DWC, we expect passenger traffic to return to Q1 levels in the next quarter as all temporary operations have already returned to Dubai International.”

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Qantas re-routes jets away from Iraq

Qantas has stopped its flights using Iraqi airspace in the wake of the MH17 disaster.

A Qantas spokesman said the airline has closely monitored flight paths over conflict zones since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine two weeks ago.

He said Qantas flights from London to Dubai travel over Iraq at an altitude of 38,000 feet and 41,000 feet, well above the minimum altitude for commercial flights over Iraq.

But the US Federal Aviation Administration had just increased the minimum altitude from 20,000 feet to 30,000 feet, prompting a review of Qantas' London-Dubai route.

"Qantas has closely monitored the issue of flight paths over conflict zones, particularly in light of the MH17 tragedy, with safety our first priority," he said.

"We have no new information that alters our safety assessment of flying over Iraq, especially given the altitudes we maintain over this region.

"However given the various restrictions imposed by different governments in the past 24 hours, including by the United States FAA, Qantas has temporarily rerouted its flights within the Middle East to avoid Iraqi airspace. This change will apply until further information becomes available."

The change took effect on Thursday night and will add up to 10 minutes to the seven-hour flight.

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Emirates to increases capacity on Boston route

Dubai-based Emirates Airline will increase passenger and cargo capacity on its Boston route from August 1 with the introduction of a larger aircraft. The airline will switch from a Boeing 777-200LR currently operating the route to a larger Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Emirates launched its Boston service - its eighth US gateway - on March 10, 2014. The Boeing 777-300ER will offer 88 additional Economy Class seats, representing a 40 per cent increase in seating. This is in addition to offering customers a choice of eight First Class Suites and 42 Business Class seats.

“Emirates has seen steady growth on our Boston route since its launch only three months ago. We believe this strong demand is thanks to Emirates’ unique product and service which is offered to our customers in all three cabins. This means that in response we are able to introduce the larger Emirates Boeing 777-300ER to New England,” said Hubert Frach, Emirates’ divisional senior vice president, Commercial Operations West. “The choice of connecting flights to West Asia, the Middle East, Far East and Africa via our home and hub in Dubai means our passengers travelling to and from Boston can enjoy unparalleled connectivity to over 140 destinations on Emirates’ global network, and also reinforces our confidence in the continued growth in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

Boston, which welcomes nearly 12 million visitors a year, is a dynamic city experiencing strong economic and commercial growth. Emirates' daily flight EK237 departs Dubai at 08:50 am and arrives in Boston at 2:45 pm. The return flight, EK238, takes off from Boston at 11:15 pm and lands in Dubai at 7:30 pm the next day. Both flights offer convenient connections to and from many of Emirates’ destinations including India, the Middle East, Singapore and Bangkok.

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Emirates increases services to India

Emirates airline will expand its A380 network to 28 destinations, when it launches a daily A380 service to Mumbai International Airport on July 21.

EK 500 and EK 501 between Dubai and Mumbai will be up-scaled to a three-class A380 aircraft, representing with a capacity increase of 2,127 seats per week in each direction. This offers passengers flying to India from key destinations in North America and Europe the chance to experience Emirates’ hugely popular flagship aircraft on this route.

In addition, Emirates will deploy larger Boeing 777 aircraft to Delhi and Hyderabad to serve growing demand. Delhi will have 980 additional one-way weekly seats while Hyderabad will increase its capacity to add 672 one-way weekly seats.

A combined total of 3,779 one-way weekly seats will be deployed on Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad through these aircraft upgrades. This follows the recent bilateral discussions between the governments of Dubai and India, which provided a phased increase of 11,000 seats for Dubai carriers.

“Air transport is an important economic driver. It facilitates trade and tourism, and has a multiplier effect through direct and indirect job creation. Emirates has been serving India since our founding year in 1985, and it is our largest market today which we serve with 185 flights each week. We look forward to working with the new Government in India to grow India’s economy through enhanced aviation connectivity and to realize India’s ambition to grow its international aviation market to 85 million passengers by 2020,” said Ahmed Khoory, Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations- West Asia & Indian Ocean.

India's National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) recently modelled the impact of Emirates up-gauging daily services to Mumbai from Boeing 777s to an Airbus A380. The annual incremental economic benefit from up-gauging one service is $8.3 million in additional GDP per return flight and the creation and support of over 1,000 jobs.

The Emirates A380 operating on the Mumbai route will feature 14 private First Class suites, 76 Business Class lie-flat seats and a spacious cabin for 399 Economy Class passengers.

On board, passengers can experience a range of unique facilities in all cabins - from the Shower Spas in First Class, to the A380 Onboard Lounge where passengers in the premium cabins can relax in a social environment during the flight; as well as 11.4” touch screen LED personal TVs.

Passengers across all cabins can enjoy up to 1,800 channels of the latest movies, TV shows and music from around the world alongside a range of games on the award-winning ice inflight entertainment system. The latest technology allows passengers to stay connected throughout the flight with high-speed Wi-Fi access and mobile phone and data services.

“Many customers specifically book their flights to our destinations knowing that they will have the chance to fly on the A380. Now that Mumbai is being added to our global network of A380 destinations, I’m sure this will come as welcome news to many of our passengers across Europe and North America who can now fly all the way from their origin point of departure to Mumbai exclusively on the A380,” said Ahmed Khoory.

Emirates currently has 48 A380s in service, more than any other airline globally. Emirates received 12 of the giant double decker aircraft over the last year. More than 25 million passengers have travelled on the Emirates A380 since it was first launched in 2008.

Emirates operates 185 flights per week to 10 gateways in India. This offers travelers on Emirates global network, which includes 85 cities in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Middle East, a range of convenient flight options to one of Asia’s most exciting leisure and business destinations.

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Dubai Overtakes Heathrow as Busiest Airport for International Passengers

Dubai International became the busiest airport globally for international passengers in the first quarter, overtaking London's Heathrow, and illustrating the stellar growth of Emirates Airline in less than 30 years of operations.

Dubai's main hub, the home of Emirates, handled 18.36 million international passengers in the first quarter of the year, Dubai Airports said in a statement Monday. Heathrow saw a total 16.1 million people pass through the airport in the same period, according to statements on the airport's website.

Heathrow pipped Dubai last year to the top spot for international traffic, followed by Hong Kong and Paris, according to official figures from Airports Council International, a global trade body, which hasn't released first quarter figures yet.

Statements from all four airports show Dubai to be the busiest airport for international passengers and the fastest-growing in the first quarter, as the number of people passing through the hub increased 11.4%, compared with the same period a year earlier.

"The growth in passenger and freight traffic supports our continued investment in expanding and improving our facilities at Dubai International," said Paul Griffiths, chief executive officer of Dubai Airports.

Dubai International's growth is being driven by Emirates and its strategy of using widebody aircraft to connect passengers in Asia and Australasia with Europe and the U.S. via a stop in its home hub. The airline carried nearly 40 million passengers in its last fiscal year. It and lower-cost, shorter-haul carrier flydubai, which is also based at Dubai International and growing apace, helped add 28 new destinations to the airport last year.

Having started operations in 1985, Emirates now serves 142 destinations in 80 countries and territories making it one of the largest carriers in the world, and it plans to grow further. The airline has 374 jets on order with Boeing Co. and Airbus Group worth a combined $162 billion. That is on top of the 218 it currently flies, although many of those aircraft will replace some of the current fleet.

Flydubai is also soaring. It increased passengers last year by 38% to 6.8 million. To cater for forecast growth of both Emirates and flydubai, Dubai Airports has plans to increase capacity at Dubai International from 75 million currently to 100 million by 2020.

The airport may still be edged out by Heathrow for the full year, as Dubai International plans an 80-day improvement project on its two runways on May 1 that will reduce the number of flights at the airport by 24%, and impact Emirates full-year revenues by $272 million.

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Dubai airport must double up on runway use, says UAE aviation chief

Dubai International Airport will need to find a way to use both of its runways simultaneously if it is to avoid exceeding its capacity as traffic grows rapidly over the next few years, according to the UAE’s aviation chief.

“Dubai airport has some limitations on the number of planes coming within one hour, this causes the traffic in the air,” said Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, director general, General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) at the Global Aerospace Summit in the capital.

“If they manage to solve the runway capacity there [they] won’t have a problem — to be able to utilise both runways simultaneously at the same time, because right now they cannot do it.”

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Emirates is coming to Oslo, Norway

Emirates (Dubai) will expand its European network with a new daily flight to Oslo, Norway, from September 2, 2014 marking its third Scandinavian gateway.

Operated by a Boeing 777-300 ER, the daily service will offer three cabin classes with eight seats in First Class, 42 seats in Business Class and 310 seats in Economy Class.

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