Emirates has trumped Etihad and Qatar’s announcements of increased frequencies at Manchester, by revealing it will go to a thrice-daily service from May 1.
Both Etihad and Qatar are to increase operations at Manchester to twice-daily (see online news March 7), but Emirates will go one step further and add a third daily flight departing the northern city at 0940, arriving in Dubai at 1950. The return leg will leave Dubai at 0300, landing in Manchester at 0755.
The new service adds to the carrier’s existing lunchtime and evening departures from Manchester, and means Emirates will be the only airline to operate three daily flights from Manchester to the same long-haul destination.
Flights will be served by A330-200 aircraft in a three-class configuration of 12 first class seats, 42 in business class and 183 in economy. Business and first class passengers will have access to Emirates’ ICE inflight entertainment system, while economy travellers will have the choice of “over 15 film and TV channels, 50 games and over 50 hours of music”.
The new flights increase the carrier’s capacity out of Manchester by 25 per cent, and means Emirates will serve the city with three different aircraft types (the A330-200 on the morning flight, an A380 superjumbo on the lunchtime departure, and a B777-300ER on the evening flight).
Emirates says that the additional morning departure from Manchester will give travellers enhanced connection opportunities to destinations in Thailand, the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East.
For more information visit emirates.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
