jarino

Time to start the 2010 thread. Did EK announce any new route for 2010 so far?

FlyEK

No. But NRT is a certainty.
The terms of the BASA between UAE and JAP allow for it, and EK will surly jump at the opportunity as the JAP economy is coming out of recession.

dusordua

From January 2010 EK 55/56 between DXB and DUS will change from a A332 to a B777 service (not 777ER).
Is there a difference in the cabin (seats, ICE, etc.) between a 777 and 777ER?

FlyEK

The B777-300 and the B777-300ER are basically the same aircraft, with the exception that -300ER has much more powerful engines and can travel a lot further.

The seat setup is as follows:

B777-300 (773) 310 42 12
B777-300ER (77W) 304 42 8

So somehow they managed to squeeze 4 more F and 6 more Y seats into the same space.

The experts here can tell you what those seats are called. Something cruiser or another.

flyphilrun

Skycruiser I think...
Be warned though, not all of the 773 have the suites in first (ie 8 F). The ones that come to MRU from DXB have the 12F Skycruiser configuration, as do most of the 773 I've taken from DXB to South East Asia (CGK, SIN, KUL.. and also PER). The skycruiser seats are excellent BTW just not suites.
It is the single most frustrating aspect of an otherwise excellent airline... You can never be sure with EK what kind of seats you are going to end up sitting in.

nipper64

Can someone please tell me the comp upgrade policy with Emirates? I have been a Skywards gold member for about 4 years and every and I mean every time I am booked on Emirates in Y I am bumped to J and sometimes even to F. I jst flew out of DUR on Thursday and was booked in Y, plenty of spare seats in Y anyway and was issued with a Y boarding pass. On boarding it was changed to a J seat. I then proceeded to DXB and then boarded a flight to MAN again in Y. Low and behold on boarding issued with a J seat.

Now I can understand an op upgrade when Y is full but when it is 1/4 empty I cannot. Do not get me wrong I am not complaining but this happens every time I fly. I do fly in J (which is paid for) about 15 times a year but is there some trigger with my skywards number or something? I am the CFO for my firm and authorise all our firms payments to EK as we have an annual spend with EK of about US$300,000. Maybe they think we should upgrade the authorisor?

ekfb

Your post does not belong here, but anyway... Here is the answer.
Of what you shared about yourself, most probably you are marked with "CIP" in EK system - Commercially Important Passenger. EK cares a lot about their CIP's. No secrets here

juzzy

how was the DUR-DXB flight?

nipper64

The flight was excellent in so far as I did not need to travel thru OR Tambo. The plan is a bit older but to avoid Johannesburg it was worth it. It cuts about 5 hours out of my travel time.

I did hear that the initial load factors have not been that great but expected as it is a new route. Apparently the loads for December are excellent and by the time they move to the new airport in Durban an aircraft change (dependant on loads) will happen. Apparently if the route grows like they think it will then they will still stick with 1 a day but use other equipment possibly the A380 if it gets filled.

bvms

it looks like emirates is holding tight its cards for expansion in 2010. it will do so according to demand potential.

bvms

http://www.eturbonews.com/11383/emir...rning-new-york

Emirates' Airbus A380 returning to New York
* Emirates airline still believes in superjumbo
* Emirates to commence daily New York JFK - Dubai A380 service
* First Airbus A380 enters Emirates fleet
* Emirates Airline pre-launch events promote world’s first non-stop services from Dubai to Los Angeles and San Francisco
* Emirates says first to offer inflight mobile calls
* Gateway to Hollywood advances American expansion for the Dubai-based, international airline
* Emirates Airlines raises $413.7M to finance new planes
* Emirates yearly earnings drop 72 percent amid downturn, but airline maintains profit streak

Aug 31, 2009

NEW YORK — The top executive at Dubai-based Emirates airline said Monday that he expects that the carrier's Airbus 380 flights will return to New York in the first six months of 2010, because passenger demand should be recovering by then.

The airline started New York service with the double-deck aircraft in April of last year, but pulled it two months later and replaced it with the smaller Boeing 777. Emirates has stretched its network as demand sank in the recession, especially in the U.S.

Emirates currently has five A380s in its fleet.

CEO Tim Clark said in an interview with The Associated Press that the company is also interested in expanding to other U.S. cities like Washington, Seattle, Boston and Chicago. But Clark doesn't expect the airline will add new U.S. destinations anytime soon.

"(History) has hardened us to knee-jerk reactions," Clark said.

Clark said the airline has been filling planes in other U.S. cities it serves; including Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. But it's kept a lid on the number of flights out of those cities because demand has been so soft.

The airline has also kept a close eye on the size of airplanes it uses at certain ports, choosing to replace bigger planes — like the A380 — with smaller ones to keep occupancy rates up during the downturn.

But the airline is still growing despite Emirates' passengers numbers globally have jumped by about 21 percent since this time last year, Clark said.

Clark told the AP in June that the Arab world's biggest carrier should stay profitable for the year through next March, even after its net profit last fiscal year tumbled 72 percent.

"The U.S. is coming along, but not as fast as Europe and Asia," Clark said.

The International Air Transport Association said Thursday that global air passenger demand fell 2.9 percent in July, indicating that demand is improving, but hasn't yet recovered.

And as demand is starting to show signs of recovery, Emirates has begun to raise fares again, Clark said, although fares are still discounted by as much as 50 percent on some routes.

Emirates serves nearly 100 destinations in 60 countries. It plans to launch service from its Dubai hub to Durban, South Africa, On Oct. 1 and to Luanda, Angola, on Oct. 25. The carrier has 128 passenger planes in service, with 123 on order — valued at more than $52 billion.

jumanji

BVMS..

I believe emirates777 said that it was pretty much off the table recently.. that is old news i believe, maybe he can clarify.

bvms

when Tim Clark (Emirates President) clarifies things, I beleive, that helps to end any discussion.

of course, emirates 777 has his contacts, so naturally putting on the a380-800 will depend on loads etc. going into the middle of 2010, depending on that it will be added or if the loads don't work to give 80% or better occupancy, then it will be assumed that B773-er will still stay on..

it's too early to comment on loads for 2010 yet, so this may contribute to emirates 777 lack of comment here, (naturally). as he nicely waits until the firm discisions are made before his announcements. He may announce (or announce a denial-seeing that the winter schedule has been published, later on..regds to all.

I go 2 times a year to Ukraine, and admittingly it's a hassle to go via Moscow, as that means having to apply for a Russian visa. The U.A.E has had a bilateral for some time with Ukraine. as aerosvit flies to Dubai from kiev, and also air arabia flies 3 times a week happily to KBP. but I'm always lamenting that if ek 723 can turn a profit with addis ababa enteebe combo why not then Lithuania-kbp-dxb or dxb-dme-kbp-dxb?

I also hope for dxb-Cgk-dps-dxb soon as well.

also when will ek fly to fiji onroute to Seattle (seatac?) and then sea-tac-dxb thus making a EK RTW?

I hope that in the 2010-2011 route planning you can consider serving these sectors, as Ek gets so many planes per year, this year having 22 more planes then last year.

Fish55

It is the single most frustrating aspect of an otherwise excellent airline... You can never be sure with EK what kind of seats you are going to end up sitting in.

Totally agree. Recently flew F LHR-DXB-BKK-DXB-LGW in three different types of a/c - 773ER/A380/772ER with four different types of seating. Pleased to say however that the service was very good on all sectors unlike the horror stories other OPs have related.

Fish55

Sorry guys, wrong thread.