Passengers totalling more than one-in-20 of the entire North East population have flown on Emirates Airline in its first year serving Newcastle International Airport.
The daily service has carried over 140,000 people since its launch on September 1 last year, with hundreds of passengers flying every day to, from and beyond Emirates’ home base of Dubai.
The service has provided vital links to Middle East, Asia and Australia for local businesses as well as opening up a vast network of destinations for holidaymakers.
Bookings for this month and October have already outstripped those made for the same period last year. Today’s flight, like last year’s inaugural flight, is fully booked.
Vic Sheppard, Emirates Vice President for UK and Ireland, said: “Given that it has been a challenging time for the entire airline industry, we are delighted to have received such strong support from the North East travelling public.
“We’ve seen some of our best-ever figures for a UK route launch, despite operating through some tough times.
“To put it into perspective, when we launched a service from Birmingham back in 2000, we carried 120,000 passengers, so it is very pleasing.”
The new service – the first ever long haul scheduled service from the airport – has opened up an extensive range of destinations beyond Emirates’ Dubai hub for North East travellers.
After Dubai, the most popular destinations have proved to be Thailand, Australia, Mauritius, The Maldives, Malaysia, South Africa and China. Peak bookings times have been January and February, driven by the desire to escape the North East winter for sunnier climes.
Over the past 12 months, Emirates has shipped over 1.7 million kilos of freight to and from the North East, more than four times the total cargo shipments through Newcastle International Airport in the whole of the previous year.
Shippers used the 13,000 kg cargo capacity on the Emirates aircraft to send commodities to destinations throughout the airline’s network of over 100 cities on six continents. Regular shipments include oilfield equipment to Australia and Indonesia, whilst pipeline inspection equipment is frequently sent to the Middle East and Singapore.
David Laws, chief executive of Newcastle International Airport, said: “The Emirates service has literally opened up a whole new world for us. The airport has a much more cosmopolitan feel about it now that we have passengers traveling to and from not only to the Middle East, but Asia, Africa and Australia as well.
“We are immensely proud to be associated with such a fast-growing and successful airline. It is making a significant contribution not only to the airport but also to businesses across the region as a whole.”
Stacy Hall, Director of Communications and Tourism for One North East, said: “The route has offered a new gateway into the North East and has allowed new visitors from the whole of the Asia Pacific including Australia and New Zealand, as well as the Middle East and Africa, to fly straight into the region.
“The route has opened up exciting opportunities for North East England and we look forward to our ongoing work with Emirates and the Airport to offer a warm welcome to all our international visitors.”
* Population of the North East is 2,555,700 (source: Office of National Statistics)
About Emirates
Emirates service to Dubai and onward destinations, flight number EK036, departs daily at 13.40. The inbound flight, the EK035, departs Dubai at 7.20 local time, arriving in Newcastle at 12.10.
Emirates operates 98 non-stop flights per week from the UK to Dubai - five services a day from London Heathrow, three daily from London Gatwick, two per day from Manchester and Birmingham, and daily services from Glasgow and Newcastle.
Emirates currently flies to 101 cities in 61 countries across six continents. The Emirates network is continuing to expand and in addition to services to Cape Town, Guangzhou, and Calicut which launched earlier this year, Los Angeles and San Francisco will start later in 2008.
For more information contact:
Steve Double or Charlie Hampton
in the Emirates Group UK Press Office at Bell Pottinger Business & Brand
Telephone: 020 7861 2449/31
E-Mail: champton@bell-pottinger.co.uk