8 destinations that start from July - by emirates, with Lyon, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico City, Nice, Orlando, Phuket, and Venice all coming back online. This follows the UAE carrier resuming A380 service from Dubai to Los Angeles, Toronto, and Washington Dulles at the beginning of the month.
Routes that have returned this month?
Looking at the first week of August, which is rapidly approaching, these eight resumed destinations have a total of 28 outbound flights a week. They’re down by about half over the same week in 2019, examining schedules from data experts OAG confirms, but at least they are returning.
1.Lyon: four-weekly by the B777-300ER
2.Malta: three-weekly via Larnaca; B777-300ER
3.Mauritius: twice-weekly; A380
4.Mexico City: four-weekly via Barcelona; B777-200LR
5.Nice: four-weekly; B777-300ER
6.Orlando: four-weekly; B777-200LR
7.Phuket: four-weekly; B777-300ER
8.Venice: three-weekly; B777-300ER
Only one of the destinations will see the A380: the 3,144-mile link to Mauritius. Meanwhile, both Mexico City and Orlando will be served by the increasingly rare B777-200LR. In the first week of August 2019, Mauritius had 14 outbound flights by the A380, while Nice was once-daily by the type. This shows how much recovery there is still to go.
Orlando started – and Miami coming
The resumption of Orlando on a passenger basis means that Emirates will serve 12 destinations in the US in early August. Orlando will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. EK219 will depart Dubai at 08:55 and arrive into Florida the same day at 16:30; a block time of 15 hours and 35 minutes.
Returning, EK220 will leave at 21:00 and arrive back in the UAE the following day at 19:10. As always, these timings are designed for connectivity at Dubai.
Significantly, a brand-new four-weekly non-stop service to Miami will be operating then too, having inaugurated on July 22nd. This follows the end of Fort Lauderdale. We examined Miami and found that it was, not surprisingly, a much larger market than Fort Lauderable.
Phuket is ready.
Emirates’ four-weekly service to the Thai tourist island of Phuket is because it has opened up to international travelers, which are crucial to its economy. Tourists can now enter Phuket without needing to quarantine, in what is a testbed in helping the country to recover. Thailand has called the experiment a success, despite a huge rise in infections. Emirates began Phuket back in 2012, ahead of Qatar Airways from Doha (2014) but the same year as Etihad from Abu Dhabi. Now, EK378 leaves Dubai at 03:00 and arrives on the Thai island at 12:30. It continues to Bangkok, before returning to Dubai via Phuket. EK379 leaves Phuket at 00:10 and arrives back in Dubai at 03:05.
What is coming back in August?
At the time of writing, Manchester and Glasgow are due to resume in August. Manchester has a once-daily A380 service from August 11th, while Glasgow has a four-weekly B777-300ER operation from the same day. However, both may be pushed back again, with the UK recovering slowly comapred with other major European nations. The UAE is also on the UK’s red list. Elsewhere, it seems that Emirates will not resume Saudi Arabia, a very important country from the UAE, until September at the earliest. This is because of the ongoing ban on travelers arriving in the Kingdom from the UAE. However, its narrow body partner, fly dubai, currently has bookable August flights to Dammam, Jeddah, and Riyadh, but it is not yet clear if they too will be pushed back.