McDonald's UAE taking part in the National Breakfast Day

With so many participating restaurants, the numbers involved become significant - potentially, this will be a free breakfast for five million McDonald's customers throughout Asia, Middle East and Africa.

"We fully expect to serve this number," says Mr. Rafic Fakih, Managing Director and Partner of McDonald's UAE. "We want to demonstrate to our busy consumers in a truly tangible way that we are an affordable and tasty way to start the morning. National Breakfast Day with McDonald's on March 18th is a way to illustrate that no one else can do it like McDonald's."

"Breakfast is a significant business for McDonald's," said Yousif Abdulghani, Managing Director, McDonald's Middle East and Africa.

"We believe the potential exists for McDonald's in the GCC to gain more share during the breakfast occasion. So there will be ongoing breakfast promotions during the rest of 2013."

Egg McMuffins are an iconic handheld breakfast, consisting of a freshly cracked egg, chicken roll, slice of melted cheese, held together by a freshly toasted English muffin. They were first introduced in the US in 1971, and since then the volume of all the various McMuffin options has risen to more than 1.2 billion per annum worldwide.