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Emirates to cover 150 destinations by 2012

Ghaith Al Ghaith, executive vice-president commercial operations worldwide, told Khaleej Times at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2006 show yesterday: "We are planning to launch three new flights by the end of this year, but next year will be a very big year for us.

We are having huge plans and by the year 2012 we should be very close to 150 destinations around the world. We are planning to cover all the major cities with high population and business centres. This will give us a critical mass, as our objective is to link Dubai to all major metropolises in the world.

Hopefully between now and the next six months we will finish our current studies on the South American market and Africa and know where we will fly. We are also planning to expand our operations in North America."

Al Ghaith said the Emirates, which is currently operating two flights to New York, was planning to launch another flight before the end of this year. "The fact that we managed to operate a double-daily to New York so quickly shows that we are successful in this market and we plan to go to more points in North America," he said.

He also said that the airline would like to fly to Canada, but due to "complicated traffic rights problems in Canada, we are not yet decided on that". He said the UAE was given six flights only to Canada, of which three are already being operated by Etihad Airways.

"There is no potential to grow neither for us nor to Etihad there and unless we see a more liberal and flexible agreement in this regard, we will not be doing anything there for a while," he said.