Nostrovia – Emirates now double daily to Moscow!

Emirates Airlines has announced that it is going double daily to Moscow, further bonding the Russian route into the airline’s network and broadening the scope for investment between Russia and the UAE and enabling Aussie and Kiwis to fly to Moscow more frequently via EK’s Dubai hub.

Responding to passenger demand for increased frequencies, the Dubai-based carrier will launch the extra daily service on February 2nd next year. The new EK 131 flight will depart Dubai at 1740hrs and arrive in Moscow at 2205hrs. The return flight, EK 132, will depart Moscow at 2340hrs and arrive in Dubai at 0555hrs the following day.

Nabil Sultan, Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe [pictured right on the right], said, “The number of passengers travelling with Emirates has been growing steadily since the launch of the Moscow service 5 years ago.”

“We have received numerous requests to increase frequencies from our customers and partners.”

“Now from February next year, we are doing just that.”

Mr Sultan, who attended a press conference last week in Moscow, added, “Emirates will continue offering its passengers the best travel experience on the market and what is particularly pleasing is that they will now have even more convenient access to numerous Emirates’ destinations around the world.”

“For example, passengers travelling between Moscow and the Seychelles or Johannesburg will benefit from reduced connection times in Dubai.”

“Meanwhile, transit passengers will be able to avoid an overnight stop-over in Dubai when travelling between Russia and Cape Town, Sydney, Auckland, Christchurch, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.”

Customers can also look forward to easier connections to Middle Eastern destinations such as Amman, Beirut, Damascus and Sanaa.

“Emirates’ passenger and cargo services to Moscow began on a five times a week basis in 2003 and as demand grew, that became six times a week, and in March 2005 Dubai to Moscow went daily.

Currently, Emirates’ flights to Moscow are served by the airline’s Boeing 777 series and the second daily flight will increase weekly capacity by 65% in Economy Class and the number of seats available in First and Business Class will double.

On the cargo side, the extra flight will increase Emirates SkyCargo’s weekly capacity into Russia to more than 220 tonnes. Currently, the main products arriving in Moscow via Emirates SkyCargo are flowers from Africa, pharmaceuticals from the Indian subcontinent and meat from Australia and New Zealand.

The additional services will also enable SkyCargo to even better serve Russian exporters by offering them more capacity and more frequent connections with their target markets.

Emirates offers passengers in Russia a range of ground services including online check-in, preferred seat selection at the time of booking when they purchase their tickets online and chauffeur-drive for First and Business Class travellers.

Emirates currently operates services to 101 destinations in 61 countries in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the Asia-Pacific.

New passenger routes for 2008 include Cape Town (launched March 30th), Kozhikode (Calicut) and Guangzhou – both launched July 1st. Services to Los Angeles start October 26th, while San Francisco kicks off December 15th.

Flights from Dubai to Moscow:

EK 133 departs Dubai 1015hrs, arrives Moscow 1440hrs

EK 131 departs Dubai 1740hrs, arrives Moscow 2205hrs (effective February 2nd, 2009)

Flights to Dubai from Moscow:

EK 134 departs Moscow 1650hrs, arrives Dubai 2255hrs

EK 132 departs Moscow 2340hrs, arrives Dubai 0555hrs the following day (effective February 2nd, 2009)

A Report by The Mole