Despite the ongoing war of words between the US airlines and the Gulf carriers (see here), Emirates has revealed that it will commence a daily service to Orlando, Florida from September 1.
The new Dubai–Orlando route will be served by a three-class B777-200LR with eight seats in first, 42 in business and 216 in economy.
Flight EK 219 will depart Dubai at 0350 and arrive in Orlando International Airport at 1140. The return service, flight EK 220 will then take off from the US city again at 1420, to arrive back in Dubai at 1230 the following day.
“Orlando is one of the world’s premier leisure and conference destinations, a dynamic business centre and a destination which Emirates has long wished to serve”, said Tim Clark, president, Emirates.
“As a growing region, we believe that our service will facilitate further growth for both Orlando as well as central Florida by connecting the city with our global network of 145 destinations across 80 countries”.
Orlando will be the tenth US passenger destination for Emirates. The Gulf carrier has been flying to the US for over a decade, and has gradually been expanding its services in order to serve the consistently high demand for its flights.
Load factors in 2014 exceeded 80 per cent, with Emirates carrying over 2.3 million passengers during that period. Passengers flying with the Gulf airline have access to single-carrier connections to over 50 global destinations not currently served by the US carriers.
For more information, visit emirates.com
Clement Huang
