Emirates flies 13m passengers to, from China in 10 years

Emirates, China, cargo, Beijing, Hong Kong, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed

Dubai - Emirates operates five flights to China per day.

By WAM

Published: Tue 23 Jul 2019, 4:55 PM

Last updated: Tue 23 Jul 2019, 8:35 PM

Dubai-based airline Emirates transported 13 million passengers to and from China over the past 10 years, which reflects the demand for flights between China and Dubai and the growing number of flights between the UAE and China.

In its statement to the Emirates News Agency, WAM, the airline noted that it currently operates five flights to China per day, or 35 flights per week, on its Airbus A380 aircraft, which transported 1.7 million passengers to and from China in 2018.

The carrier added that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China Southern Airlines to conclude a joint code agreement signed in February 2019 while explaining that the first phase of its Dubai-Guangzhou route began in June. The partnership will enable its customers to travel to eight new destinations in China while Chinese travellers can fly to five destinations in the Middle East, which are Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Muscat and Kuwait, as well as to Cairo, Seychelles and Lagos, it further added.

The airline stressed that it increased its seating capacity on its flights to Hong Kong in response to growing demand, noting that it transported 5.5 million passengers to and from Hong Kong over the past ten years, and 790,000 passengers in 2018.

The airline uses the Airbus A380 aircraft in two of its four daily flights to Hong Kong, and the Boeing 777 on the other two flights.

Emirates Airline began flying to Hong Kong in 1991, and it started operating the A380 aircraft on its Hong Kong route in 2010. In October 2013, its number of flights to Hong Kong amounted to four per day.

Emirates Air Cargo operates 10 weekly cargo flights to China, including seven flights to Shanghai and three to Guangzhou. In the last six years, since April 2013, 670,000 tonnes of cargo was transported to and from China, reflecting its growing trade with the UAE.

Emirates Air Cargo offers more than 3,000 tonnes of cargo capacity per week to and from China, Shanghai is the largest air cargo terminal in the country, handling over 340,000 tonnes of cargo to and from the same destination.

Guangzhou is the second most important destination for Emirates Air Cargo, which transported nearly 100,000 tonnes of cargo to this destination in the last six years.

Emirates began operating in Shanghai in 2004, doubling its service to two daily flights in 2008 and launching a daily service to Guangzhou in the same year. The airline also launched a non-stop daily service to Beijing in 2006, which doubled to two daily flights in 2007.