Emirates has today (6th May, 2009) unveiled a 10kgs increase in its free checked baggage allowance, giving it one of the most generous baggage policies of any airline today.

Economy Class passengers now have a baggage allowance of 30kgs – up from 20kgs, the Business Class allowance has increased from 30kgs to 40kgs, and First Class from 40kgs to 50kgs.

These new, generous allowances, which are effective for all tickets issued on or after 4th May, have been implemented across the airline’s extensive global network of over 100 destinations.

Carriers such as British Airways have an Economy Class checked luggage allowance of 23kgs per passenger, whilst the Economy Class allowances on Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific are from 20kgs per passenger.

Nabil Sultan, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President Revenue Optimisation, said: “Emirates has moved to these new free baggage levels to further demonstrate our commitment to putting the passenger first. By offering travellers the flexibility to carry significantly more baggage we will be allowing them to take more gifts for family and friends or take advantage of the outstanding shopping in Dubai and across the extensive network of Emirates destinations.”

Gold and Silver Members of Skywards, Emirates frequent flyer programme are entitled to an additional baggage allowance of 16 kgs over their ticketed allowance for Gold members and additional 12 kgs for Silver. Codeshare passengers travelling on Emirates operated flights are also eligible for the revised free baggage allowances.

Emirates‘ regular rates will be applied to baggage in excess of these new allowances.

Emirates have announced they are to upgrade their twice daily Birmingham – Dubai service to an all 777 operation.

Starting from the first of June, Emirates will be adding a total of 86 extra seats a day by replacing the current A330 with a 777 on their evening departure from Birmingham (BHX).

An airline spokesman claimed the move was due to exceptional demand. Adding  “Over the last few months demand has continued to grow on the Birmingham route, necessitating an increase in capacity to meet the surge in passenger numbers.” 

A travel agency from Solihull told Airline News that services to Australia and South Africa are booking particularly well for Emirates so far in 2009.

Emirates has announced that it will use the Airbus A380 to operate flights from Dubai to Toronto and Bangkok.

Getting underway on 1 June, the new flights will represent the debut of the A380 in Canada and an expansion of its presence in the Asia Pacific region following the launch of services to Sydney and Auckland in February.

The introduction of the superjumbo will provide a capacity increase of about 30% on both routes from Dubai.

Tim Clark, president of Emirates, said: ‘We are extremely pleased to announce the introduction of the A380 for our Toronto and Bangkok services. Our Toronto route has had consistently high demand since the thrice-weekly service was launched two years ago.

‘The A380 will allow Emirates to address some of the unmet need in Toronto while in Bangkok, the A380 will help support the Thai government’s new tourism initiatives.’

Emirates has equipped its A380 aircraft with 14 first class cabins, 76 business class seats and 399 economy spaces.

The airline recently unveiled the ‘e-zone’ technology and entertainment area at its business class lounge in Dubai.

Thanks to Opodo for this press release.

Virgin Atlantic has been proclaimed leading airline business brand.

That’s according to the results of  a superbrand survey which is decided by a panel of experts along with 1’500 individual business professionals that have either purchasing or managerial responsibility. The business brands are assessed on three separate criteria : quality, reliability and distinction. Below we have got the list of the airlines that appear in the survey. In brackets is the position of the brand in the overall survey.

1. VIRGIN ATLANTIC (25)

2. BRITISH AIRWAYS (36)

3. EMIRATES (68)

4. Singapore Airlines (78)

5. easyJet (308)

6. QATAR AIRWAYS (318)

7. BMI (413)

8. Swiss International (430)

Emirates Airline has unveiled “cautiously ambitious” plans to add 18 new passenger aircraft to its fleet this year, raising seating capacity by 14 per cent and enabling it to start new routes as well as increasing frequencies on many existing routes.

“The additional frequencies will afford passengers a greater choice of flights, more frequent connections with their target markets, and shorter, more convenient connection times” Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman, Emirates Airline told Airline News.

Emirates currently has a fleet of 129 wide-bodied aircraft. He said 2009 would be one of consolidation, with fewer new routes launched than in previous years. “Instead, we will concentrate on strengthening our presence on routes where there is a greater demand from our customers. All of our new capacity will be deployed in markets where we see growth potential, particularly Africa and the West Asia,” he said. Indeed, Emirates’ fastest growing markets are Africa and West Asia, recording 17 and six per cent growth, respectively in the past 12 months. To this end, Emirates recently added a second daily flight to Lagos.

It will also introduce services from Dubai to Durban, South Africa on October 1, 2009. The route will be served by a two-class, 278-seat Airbus A330-200 which can carry up to 14 tonnes of cargo into the port city. Emirates has added 32 weekly flights to its existing Indian services since November 2008. The enhanced capacity means customers now have a choice of 163 weekly flights into ten gateways in the country. “Plans are also afoot to deploy superjumbos on Dubai-Seoul and Dubai-Singapore services in November and December, 2009 respectively,” said Al-Maktoum. The first A380 flight between Dubai and Seoul’s Incheon International Airport will depart in November 2009, while the Singapore service will start in December 2009, and initially run four times weekly.

Happy New Year

Here are the most read stories published here in 2008

Jan
BA to start up new trans-Atlantic airline
BA 777 crash lands at Heathrow

Feb
A2 plane – day trip to Australia
Ryanair plans for Euro recesssion

Mar
Mileage runs
A380 landing at Heathrow

Apr
Brussels airlines flies slower to save fuel
Aer Lingus revenue management blunder

May
Jet2 to New York
jetBlue seats passenger in toilet on overbooked flight

Jun
Emirates launch FlyDubai low cost airline
Never drive close to a jet aircraft

Jul
Thomas Cook Expansion
Air France plans rail services

Aug
747 used as a hostel at Stockholm airport
Virgin Galactic

Sep
Condor out of tuifly and germanwings merger
Gatwick airport for sale

Oct
Lufthansa to takeover bmi
BA to add South Africa flights in 2009

Nov
Airlines lost in 2008
Jet2 rebrand

Dec
Virgin – Qantas+BA merger bad for passengers
Air New Zealand completes bio-fuel test flight

LONDON (Reuters) – Emirates airline is not planning to buy a stake in rival British Airways , a spokeswoman said today (11th Jan 2008), denying rumors that pushed BA shares as much as 6 percent higher.

“Emirates has no interest in taking a stake in BA and is concentrating on organic growth,” said a spokeswoman in London.

BA shares were up 4.5 percent at 281 pence at 12:30 p.m. GMT.

At a press conference in Australia today, Emirates announced it will:

• Grow services from Dubai to Australia from the current 49 flights a week to 56 flights a week during 2008;

• Increase services to 70 flights a week during 2009;

• Fly twice daily from Dubai to Brisbane in (October) 2008;

• Fly three times daily from Dubai to Melbourne and Sydney from 2009; and

• Launch Airbus A380 direct services from Dubai to Sydney and Melbourne in 2009

Jetvine comment : Should be good for flights to Australia from the UK as Emirates is already offering flights from Birmingham (BHX), Glasgow (GLA), Heathrow (LHR), Gatwick (LGW), Manchester (MAN) and Newcastle (NCL)