Emirates has delayed the launch of its new route between Dubai and Panama City.
The Gulf carrier had originally planned to launch the flights – which will be the world’s longest non-stop services at around 17 and a half hours – on February 1 (see news August 13, 2015).
But a spokesperson confirmed the route will now be delayed until March 31, “in order to fully receive all regulatory codeshare approvals from the wider Central and Latin America region”.
In a statement the carrier said:
“Emirates firmly believes in the potential of the route, not only as a valuable trade and tourism link between the two fast growing global cities of Panama and Dubai, but also as a gateway for travellers across Emirates' global network to access Central and Latin American markets with just one stop in Dubai, and vice versa.
“We look forward to offering our customers seamless connections to Panama and beyond, and to launching non-stop flights to Panama.”
Only last month Emirates had announced passengers would be able to connect to 25 cities across the Caribbean, and Central and South America with Panamanian carrier Copa Airlines, and had released a range of offers for travel to 12 cities between February and March 23.
Emirates is not the only carrier which has been forced to delay flights to Panama – last year Lufthansa announced plans to launch flights from Frankfurt in November, only to postpone them until March this year (see news July 7, 2015).
Mark Caswell
