Emirates has announced it will launch a daily service between Edinburgh and Dubai from 1 October.
The announcement comes after Etihad said it would cease flying to the Scottish capital, owing partially to competition from Qatar Airways’ service to Doha.
Emirates also operates services to Glasgow, with the new Edinburgh flights marking the airline’s eighth UK destination after it starts its daily Stansted service in June.
The new flights will be operated by a B777-300ER in a three-cabin configuration. The aircraft will feature eight private suites in First Class, 42 lie-flat seats in Business and 304 in Economy.
Services from Dubai will depart at 0955 and arrive in Edinburgh at 1450, while the return flight will leave at 2015 and land at 0640 the following morning. Emirates says the schedule is timed to allow Scottish passengers a convenient connection to its other services to destinations such as Bangkok, Lahore, Hong Kong, Singapore, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.
The service will also enable Emirates Skycargo to offer up to 20 tonnes of cargo capacity per flight, which the airline says will support local businesses in increasing exports.
Hubert Frach, divisional senior vice president of commercial operations, West at Emirates, said: “We’re increasing capacity to Scotland to meet growing demand, and by introducing a daily flight to Edinburgh, it will complement our current double daily flights between Dubai and Glasgow.”
Gordon Dewar, CEO of Edinburgh airport, commented: “This service will cater for leisure and business passengers, providing daily links for international tourism and trade opportunities, both inbound and outbound.”
emirates.com