Following a hiatus of almost two and a half years, there were celebrations at Dublin Airport yesterday (1 September) as Emirates resumed its double daily service between Dublin and Dubai.
The announcement means that once again, Emirates will connect up to 720 people every day from Ireland with more than 130 exciting destinations such as Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Auckland, Melbourne, the Seychelles and the Maldives.
The reinstatement of the second daily flight, which had been suspended in March 2020 with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, is good news not only for eastbound leisure and business passengers from Ireland, but for Ireland’s tourism industry too. With additional capacity on the Dublin route, there are once again more options for visitors looking to visit Ireland with Emirates, which marks ten years of operations on the Dublin – Dubai route this year.
Country manager for Emirates, Ireland, Enda Corneille (pictured) confirmed that the Dublin office had seen a fourfold increase in business to Dubai for the first seven months of 2022 (V January to July 2021).
“The appetite for international travel has surpassed our expectations and traffic to Dubai for the current period is up 448% on the same period last year,” said Enda Corneille. “The popularity of Dubai with its year-round sunshine, outdoor lifestyle and wide range of activities and accommodation options has surged and it is one of the top destinations for Irish tourists. But in addition to Dubai, we have seen huge growth in bookings for Australia as families and friends reconnect following the reopening of Australian borders. While we all know how tough the past two years have been, we have a lot of very happy passengers onboard right now.
“This demand has been building for several months and once we could ensure that our second flight would be supported with all of the on-the-ground infrastructure and logistics needed for us to provide a premium service, we set the 1 September date. I would like to thank all of the stakeholders who have helped make this happen. We have been looking forward to this day for a very long time.”
Enda Corneille confirmed that bookings for winter 2022/23 are already strong and the five most popular destinations for customers from Ireland this year are Dubai, Sydney, Melbourne, Bangkok and Mauritius.
During the early days of the pandemic Emirates was operating just two flights a week from Dublin, growing to four on the back of demand for its cargo business. A daily service resumed on 1 October 2021 and from today, the daily schedule with a flight time of around 7.5 hours is as follows:
- EK162 departs Dublin at 14.20, arriving in Dubai at 00.45
- EK 164 departs Dublin at 22.05, arriving in Dubai at 08.30 (resuming today, September 1)
- EK161 departs Dubai at 07.15, arriving in Dublin at 12.10
- EK163 departs Dubai at 15.15, arriving in Dublin at 20.10 (resuming today, September 1)
For further information www.emirates.ie
