Emirates, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, announced that it will commence a daily Airbus A380 service from Dubai to Mauritius from 16 December 2013.
The new flight will replace one of the existing three class Boeing 777-300 services the airline currently operates to Mauritius. This means Emirates will continue to serve the country on a double daily basis with an additional 153 seats on the route each day across First Class, Business Class and Economy Class.
“Having brought our flagship A380 aircraft to this beautiful island for the first time in March, we could see how much appeal the aircraft had for our customers on the route. A first amongst the Indian Ocean Islands, it is a matter of great pride to be able to offer this service on a daily basis from December this year”, said Mr Thierry Antinori – Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.
“The strategic decision to add the extra capacity is a testament to Emirates’ on-going commitment to supporting the tourism sector of Mauritius. There has been growing demand to support leisure traffic to the region, and the extra capacity will serve multiple destinations across our network in Europe, Middle East and Asia, with seamless connectivity through our Dubai hub,” added Mr Antinori.
Emirates has been operating to Mauritius since 2002 with three flights per week and in December 2012 commenced a double daily service due to continued growing demand. The introduction of the A380 service will allow for greater connectivity to key markets across Emirates’ 33 destinations in Europe, 17 in the Middle East, 16 in the Indian sub-continent and 15 in Far East Asia.
Emirates currently has 35 A380’s in its fleet which is the world’s largest. Mauritius will be the 23rd destination the airline operates the aircraft to from its’ hub in Dubai following: Amsterdam, Auckland, Bangkok, Beijing, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Kuala Lumpur, London Heathrow, Manchester, Melbourne, Moscow, Munich, New York JFK, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney and Toronto. Forthcoming operations of the aircraft to Zurich and Los Angeles have also recently announced.
The Wi-Fi equipped Emirates’ A380s carry the world-renowned ice entertainment system, offering passengers nearly 1,500 channels of films, TV programmes, games and music and state-of-the-art inflight communications. On the upper deck, First Class passengers can freshen up in one of two on-board Shower Spas, while First and Business Class travelers can chat over a drink in the onboard lounge.
Emirates currently flies daily from Dubai to Malta via Larnaka, Cyprus, using a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft.