Emirates airline announced Monday, November 19 it will launch new direct long-distance flights from 2002 to western Australia, Japan, Mauritius, Morocco and Sudan.
The Dubai government-owned carrier will fly Boeing 777s to Perth and the Japanese trading city of Osaka four times a week, the airline said in a statement. It will also launch thrice-weekly flights by Airbus A330 to Khartoum, Morocco's commercial capital Casablanca and the Indian Ocean holiday island of Mauritius.
Emirates, which currently serves 56 cities in 39 countries, is also scheduled to begin flights to the Americas in 2003. "Despite today's challenging business conditions, the long-term future for air travel is for steady growth," said Ghaith Al-Ghaith, Emirates' commercial operations director.
Emirates has embarked on a massive expansion program to have 100 aircraft by 2010 in the belief that tourism and commerce will continue to grow apace. It announced orders earlier this month for 22 giant double-decker Airbus A380 aircraft and options for 10 more at a cost of seven billion dollars. Delivery is due to start from 2006.
The airline also ordered three twin-engine A330 Airbuses worth $450 million and signed a letter of intent for eight of the larger four-engine A340-600 Airbuses worth one billion dollars. It signed letters of intent to buy 25 US Boeing 777 passenger jets for $6.6 billion, to be delivered between 2004 and 2010. —(AFP, Dubai)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
