Emirates has started flying a daily service from Dubai to Abuja.
The Gulf carrier is operating an A340-300 with 267 seats in a three-class configuration — 12 in first class, 42 in business and 213 in economy — on the route.
Outbound flight EK785 departs Dubai daily at 1050 and arrives in Abuja at 1510. Return service EK786 takes-off from the Nigerian capital at 1935 and lands in Dubai at 0550 the next day.
Emirates vice-president Adil Al Ghaith said: "This new daily flight provides a convenient point-to-point service for our customers between Abuja and Dubai, and it will meet and further stimulate a vibrant market demand between the two cities.
"It will also serve our customers in Nigeria and around the network with additional connectivity and daily frequency. Our leisure and business passengers from Nigeria can now better connect to the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Asia via our hub in Dubai.
"Customers in Abuja can experience our A380 flagship aircraft to 29 destinations around the world, including popular ones like Beijing, Hong Kong, Mumbai, New York, Jeddah and London."
Abuja is Emirates' second destination in Nigeria (it already flies daily to Lagos), its 26th in Africa and its 144th worldwide.
Last week, Emirates announced that it will no longer fly its aircraft over Iraq due to concerns that Islamic militants could use a missile to bring down a passenger plane (see news, July 28).
Graham Smith
