The Dubai-based Emirates Airline, the second largest and most profitable Arab carrier, will increase flights to Beijing from May 1, local newspaper Gulf News reported Thursday.

 

Initially the carrier will increase its services from the current daily to 12 flights a week, and from July, the Dubai- Beijing route will have a double-daily nonstop service, the report said.

 

"Since the launch of our Dubai-Beijing route last September, we have experienced strong demand from countries on our network and consistently high seat load factors. ... And the upcoming Olympic Games in 2008 will increase the tempo of demand for our services to Beijing," Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline, was quoted as saying.

 

"Our second daily to the city is win-win for customers, stake holders and our business, which is the reason we earmarked the city for double dailies so soon after our launch," he added.

 

Emirates Airline will serve the second daily with an Airbus A340-300, offering 267 seats in a three-class configuration -- 12 seats in First Class, 42 in Business and 213 in Economy -- and 13 tons of belly-hold cargo capacity.

 

With the second daily, the carrier will offer capacity of more than 3,700 seats and 180 tons of cargo to Beijing every week.

 

Established in 1985 by the Dubai government, Emirates Airline currently operates services to more than 80 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Oceania and North America.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2007)