[onajetplane]

Being reported that Emirates has been granted authority for a Dubai – Miami – Bogota 5th freedom route! Seems like a significant new announcement, and potentially also a precursor model for future EK routes to South America!

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Mark

[AMcWhirter]

Indeed. Approval granted by Colombia’s CAA.

Unclear whether or not the US has granted its approval.

Flights (assuming all goes well) will launch in early June.

[MarkivJ]

Oh wow, will be a game changer given Avianca and the other US airlines fly smaller aircraft without the premium experience

[AMcWhirter]

Now confirmed by Emirates.

These fifth-freedom flights commence June 3.

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onajetplane

[onajetplane]

Aeroroutes have now just published the schedule and it’s a daily routing!

EK213 DXB0215 – 1005MIA1235 – 1525BOG 77W D
EK214 BOG1725 – 2215MIA0045+1 – 2300+1DXB 77W D

@MarkivJ – I imagine they will sweep up a lot of premium traffic between MIA and BOG – will be interesting to see what the price point is.

[Mark Caswell]

Emirates to launch flights to Bogotá

[AlanOrton1]

As MarkivJ says, not much of a premium offering currently available on this route, as the incumbents all use single aisle aircraft.
However, it is served by AA, Avianca, Delta and LATAM, all with multiple daily departures.
For point to point J traffic though, they’ll have a vastly superior product in the air.

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AMcWhirter

[Simon58]

Will the US allow transit passengers flying between DXB & BOG to stay on board or will they have to clear immigration/customs/decurity etc?

[AMcWhirter]

That’s a good point.

Certainly when Air NZ operated London-Los Angeles-Auckland (the service was axed in 2020) all London-Auckland passengers needed to disembark and hold a US visa … even if they were only in transit (and had to intention to visit the USA).

[Rferguson2]

It is a little similar to what EK have done between some Aussie East Coast cities and NZ. Whilst the EK A380 or 777 would otherwise sit on the ground in SYD MEL or BNE they instead fly to AKL or Christchurch and back (it’s about 3hr45min each way).

Although Air NZ does operate a few OZ east coast – NZ services on widebodied aircraft the majority of their flights are on narrow bodies and indeed all of Qantas’ are on 737’s. EK still rolls out the full service offering on their OZ – NZ flights so pax can still take a shower in First Class and the J/F inflight bar is in full swing.

Oddly, EK also has a little bit of competition from OTHER non OZ/Kiwi airlines also using fifth freedom rights (and their widebody aircraft) to fly OZ-NZ. LATAM flies SYD-AKL-SYD as a stopover to/from Santiago and China Airlines flies Brisbane – Auckland on their stunning A350’s.

Where Qantas and Air NZ are able to compete is with their frequencies.

So the market is there for both those not too bothered by frequency or times of flights but more concerned with comfort and also for those where frequency or a particular time of day is more important and willing to forgo the flat beds.

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cwoodward, onajetplane

[AndrewinHK]

Simple Flying has a piece on this, outlining that passengers will need to arrive in the US, go through customs, collect bags, and recheck them, which makes the routing less than desirable.

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cwoodward

[cybertravller]

We had the same issue at BA when there was a Puerto Rico shuttle service from what I think was either Antigua or St Lucia. Getting off and clearing US immigration and customs was a big hassle and made the route undesirable.

As much as I enjoy the Emirates experience, the thought of having to disembark and go through all the hassle of US clearance puts me off this route.

[BackOfThePlane]

That seems bonkers to me. I understand that there is no real transit in the US (in the normal sense) and that all travellers have to pass through immigration – I myself am travelling through Houston enroute to Nicaragua in April.

But clearing immigration AND having to collect bags / check-in again?? Anyone who has travelled through Miami will know that a ‘connecting time’ of a little over 2 hours isn’t a given, especially for any travellers who aren’t travelling on an ESTA. I’m guessing, on a routing such as this, there will be quite a few non ESTA passengers.

While I can see the attraction of flying EK between Dubai & Miami and between Miami & Bogota, routing Dubai to Bogota via Miami suddenly sounds like a hassle. That said, there don’t appear to be many alternatives.

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DerekVH

[superchris]

I can still recall flying on an Iberia 727 from Miami to Cancun. IIRC the had a whole fleet out of Miami serving the Caribbean and central American destinations

[Simon58]

Yes they operated a small fleet of 727/DC9 out of Miami which connected from/to their Madrid flights. But back in those days there was a special channel for transit passengers to avoid having to pass through Immigration/Customs

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superchris

[Author]

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