Emirates to start regular flights to Abuja

Abuja becomes Emirates’ 2nd destination in Nigeria with start of daily flights, offering around 180 tonnes of cargo capacity a week

Emirates has now connected Abuja, the Nigerian capital, to its worldwide network. The Nigerian capital is the airlines 26th destination in Africa and its 144th worldwide. The route is served by an Airbus A340-300 which offers 267 seats in a three-class configuration.

„This new daily flight provides a convenient point to point service for our customers between Abuja and Dubai, and it will meet and further stimulate a vibrant market demand between the two cities. It will also serve our customers in Nigeria and around the network with additional connectivity and daily frequency. Our customers passengers from Nigeria can now better connect to the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Asia via our hub in Dubai,” says Adil Al Ghaith, Emirates Vice President Commercial Operations, Northern and Western Africa.

“With a fast growing economy, Nigeria is a key market for Emirates. We started operations to Nigeria on 2nd January 2004, with four flights a week from Dubai to Lagos. Since then, our operations have steadily grown with increases in both frequency and capacity between Lagos and Dubai. Today, we fly twice daily to Lagos and now we have added Abuja,” he adds.

Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of the airline, offers over 180 tonnes of cargo capacity a week on the route. The main imports into Abuja are expected to be machinery, chemicals, transport equipment and manufactured goods, while exports include leather, vegetables and foodstuffs. The additional cargo capacity on the new service will see a further strengthening of the bilateral trade between Nigeria and the UAE. According to the UAE Ministry of Economy, the value of bilateral trade stood at USD 106 million at the start of Emirates’ services in 2004. This increased to USD 857 million in 2009 – a 710 percent increase in a five-year period.

Emirates flight EK785 departs Dubai daily at 1050hrs and arrives in Abuja at 1510hrs. The return flight, EK 786 departs Abuja at 1935hrs and arrives in Dubai at 0550hrs the next morning.

www.skycargo.com

Quelle: LogEastics
Portal: www.logistik-express.com