I think IAD has a better chance than ORD. I dont know if EK wants to compete with EY (and its FF partnership with AA) would make EK more difficult to market this flight. Plus if it ends up diluting the yields for both, EY execs will be displeased enough that Abu Dhabi could put pressure on EK to pull out.

Now ORD is an excellent choice for QR, it has a frequent flyer partnership with UA.

My 2 cents-the 2 businesses are completely separate-yes if loads go down AD gov't could put pressure, but I really really doubt as much will happen, as Ek's been wanting to get into ORD for a long time, I really doubt at all if the loads on EY will go down at all-as they are code sharing with the world (EK doesn't much)! My bet is Ek will go ahead and later we'll all see what happens, "it ain't over until the fat lady sings! ;) (meaning time will tell)".

ok, even if ORD could be out for ek, whats to stop them from flying into midway airport then?

Idk about the politics of it, but Chicago should be a good destination for Emirates, especially for connections to the subcontinent.

Edit: So is DC, actually.

Edit2: Does EK have landing rights problems in the states?

We all can only hope that "the powers that be" in EK also are not hampered by the local politics of EY & QR in ORD. Even if they ARE hampered at ORD, because of it-they could always fly into MDW (midway airport in Chicago-which is also an international airport):cool:

AFAIK ek's got NO PROBLEMS w landing rights in USA,

I just wish they'd exercise a few more of them a bit quicker!:cool:

Why is it showing that EK added Phoenix, and Austin to their North American routes ???????

Destinations beyond the Emirates Network announced a few months ago I think.

http://www.emirates.com/english/plan...s_network.aspx

DXB FRA service increase is now scheduled from 31OCT11, operating 18 weekly. It'll go to 21 weekly as scheduled from 01DEC11

Taiwan is one of the low-yield market in Asia, along with Malaysia. Malaysia works for Middle Eastern carriers due to obvious reason.

Who says that? Nobody who will come to PHX anytime soon. I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Last week EK had a big ad in Gulfnews advertising many US cities, but when you read the fine print it mentioned partner airlines.

All is good, my bad.

This was the ad in Gulfnews.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2qxp8o5.jpg

now it's been deleted, (by emirates or who-I don't know)

thanks, I'm still waiting for some BIG news (aren't we all here?)

Originally Posted by CaptainEKAirbus
Hey guys,
Well from speculation I think we have come to a conclusion that the most likely additions to the EK network within 2011-2012 are:

DXB - LED - Starting November 1, 2011 (Right on that!)
DXB - IAD
DXB - ORD
DXB - GIG - EZE - Starting January 3, 2012 (Right on that one too!)
DXB - TXL (gov. policies wont change for a while)
DXB - STR (gov. policies wont change for a while)
DXB - YVR and or YYC (If the gov. policies change)

Quote: Originally Posted by CaptainEKAirbus
Maybe time for some U.S. expansion?? I keep hearing about how much EK wants to expand into the US/Canada in the coming years, but nothing announced as of yet! Also have to note that theres some nice expansion on the Airbus fleet at EK!!

Regards,
Captain Airbus

aside from led, ord, iad, baghdad, any other predictions? like kbp or warsaw?

Hi emirates 777! No one on this forum have heard any ek 2011/2012 route news from you lately - in quite a while are you sick-dead or something? (No pun intended ):confused:

An A380 dedicated update to the 2011/12 operating plan:

Effective 30 October 2011

EK302/303 DXB-PVG-DXB – upgrade to A380-800 on a Daily basis from the current 3x weekly

Effective 1 December 2011

EK097/098 DXB-FCO-DXB – aircraft upgrade from B777-300 to A380-800 (ULR version)

EK346/347 DXB-KUL-DXB – aircraft upgrade from B777-300ER to A380-800 (ULR version)

The above are all subject to government approval, not loaded into the reservation system yet and still subject to change.

There are some other smaller updates to the operating plan e.g. TUN and KRT both increasing to Daily, SEZ’s 2 nd frequency remaining at 4x weekly and not rising to the planned Daily service, all of which I have not outlined in detail.

EK406/407 DXB-MEL-AKL-MEL-DXB will also likely upgrade to the A380 by March 2012.

Sneak preview for 2012/13 operating plan: The new lighter A380s which will have more range are planned to be deployed on EK225/226 DXB-SFO-DXB and EK261/262 DXB-GRU-DXB. No firm dates yet.

Keep discovering - more interesting developments ahead.

As always, all info posted above subject to operational changes.

Rgds Emirates777

whew! finally some notice on the forum from you, it's been quite a while since you posted last. Thank you for returning! please give more news when you get it.^:)

I'm quite surprised about FCO and KUL! FCO used to be served with an A330 till not so long ago and the current offer for F would lead one to believe that it isn't a high yield market. KUL is supposed to be low yield as well and I would have expected SIN to go to a 380 before KUL did! Maybe that new direct flight they're starting!