Emirates increases capacity to New Delhi and Ahmedabad

Effective 30th March, the award-winning carrier will add one flight every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday to its existing daily service to New Delhi. In the next phase of expansion starting 2nd July, another three flights - one every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday - will be added to the route.

The additional flights will be operated by Boeing 777-200 and Airbus A330-200 aircraft in three-class configurations. The extra frequencies will inject over 1800 seats and more than 120 tonnes of cargo capacity per week per direction and considerably boost capacity on the high-demand route.

Beginning 30th March, Emirates will also add two weekly flights to Ahmedabad, its most recent gateway in India, taking its total frequency on the route to eight flights per week. The airline will operate the additional services with an Airbus A330-200 aircraft in two- and three-class configurations.

Salem Obaidalla, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations West Asia & Indian Ocean said:

"New Delhi took centre stage in 1985 when Emirates commenced its worldwide operations with the Indian capital city as one of our first three gateways. Today, two decades later, New Delhi once again assumes significance as its enhanced service pushes Emirates' all India operations to a new milestone of 108 weekly flights."

Obaidalla stressed that flight schedules have been planned to maximise late night arrivals in Dubai and seamless onward connections to Emirates' rapidly-expanding 99-gateway global network. "For corporate travellers the additional flights will facilitate easy connections to international business hubs such as London, New York, and Johannesburg via Dubai. Likewise, leisure travellers will benefit from the two to three hours transit time in Dubai when connecting to holiday hotspots like Mauritius."

Emirates continues to advance its presence in India. The Dubai-based airline recently announced plans to launch six flights per week to Kozhikode - its tenth Indian gateway - from 1st July. The decision closely follows the airline's major enhancement of services to Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin and Hyderabad over the summer and winter months of 2007.

Emirates currently operates 99 flights to nine Indian gateways.