Appears to be related to the A350 delivery delays with the cascading impact of not having enough free aircraft to launch EK767, while also trying to get as many aircraft through the refurbishment program as possible. Originally Emirates was anticipating having about a dozen A350s on property before the end of March. It's now looking like only one more will be delivered between now and the end of March, taking the total to 4 A350s, or 8 short of where they thought they might be.

Its official

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ff37afa15.jpeg

interesting that Bloomberg was allowed to break the story beforehand.

The Siem Reap and Da Nang flights, while better than not having them at all are a bit disappointing. Press release says old 2 class 77W with a stop in BKK.

For Siem Reap (in J or obviously F) I think I might rather fly on an a A380 flight and just take the short hop on TG or PG as I have always done. Most people will not think about it like this, but this is FT after all.

https://www.emirates.com/media-centr...p-in-cambodia/

I am doubtful how successful these three new flights will be.

Air France attempted tacking on continuing service to Cambodia onto its Bangkok flights a number of years ago and failed miserably. IIRC the flights were full until Bangkok and were flying onward to Cambodia with only a handful of pax.

Emirates already serves Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Does Da Nang really merit addition? And it's another tag-on to a Dubai-Bangkok flight. It's likely that most people flying to Viet Nam are already going to one of the two main gateways (HAN or SGN).

Is it prudent to add another city in Mainland China given the country's present economic difficulties and decline in inbound/outbound travel? Shenzhen feels like overkill. Emirates already flies to Guangzhou and Hong Kong in the region. That should be more than adequate to meet area demand.

Or is Emirates just trying to be cute and attempting to outdo Turkish Airlines in number of cities served?

Da Nang makes some sense to me, it’s an hour and a half flight time from Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh so Bangkok is really not that much further and neither is exactly pleasant to connect in. In addition, Vietnam Airlines currently doesn’t fly the route so there is scope for EK to pick up some traffic from Bangkok that doesn’t want to fly LCC. It also makes sense to launch before TK or QR does as I doubt there‘s enough demand for multiple carriers. Question is whether it’s just too low margin as a destination to work or not given premium leisure remains where it’s at and I don’t perceive Da Nang as particularly premium.

Shenzhen not clear on the logic but perhaps an attempt to leverage the blossoming Chinese tech industry? Regardless of the general Chinese consumer picture this is surely a sector poised for massive further growth and all those Chinese workers will need to connect somewhere on their way to sell the tech.

Let's not forget that passenger aircraft also carry cargo and the economics of that is even less obvious for us outsiders.

I doubt much cargo is going to/from Da Nang or Siem Reap. Shenzhen, absolutely. But the other two, highly unlikely.

On what do you base that opinion? Surely much of the stuff that now goes by land to SGN/HAN/PNH for export could find it's way into the cargo hold of a nearby B777 instead.

Flight schedule is key here, EK370 currently arrives BKK 6pm while EK371 departs 3 am (around 9 hours idle in the airport). These turnarounds utilizes idle time, reduces the congestion on DXB midnight arrivals and arrives on time for quick connections to the bulk of westward/European flights. Moreover, opening new niche destinations without using extra aircrafts and crew get 2x24hr layovers instead of a single 32 hrs. Win Win

It won't go through airports that are primarily tourism-oriented and aren't major logistics centres, for the same reason that exporters don't ship to/from Spain via IBZ or Thailand via UTP.

DNATA apear to think otherwise for Da Nang anyway, where there is already a decent sized cargo facility. I haven't been to the new airport in Siem Reap yet so not sure what's there but a cargo terminal was in the initial plans.

That doesn't mean Da Nang will be a primary cargo gateway for Viet Nam, particularly for cargo via the Middle East. Tourist centres are never major hubs for cargo.

Second daily to TPE:

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/250310-ekns25tpe

EK386/387 was previously used on DXB-HKG which was cancelled once Covid started and was never resumed.