Emirates to Increase Tanzania Flights

Emirates is to launch a second service to the east African coastal city of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania on 26 October 2014.

The new flight will be operated with an Emirates A330-200, in a three class configuration with 12 seats in First Class, 42 in Business Class and 183 in Economy Class, adding a total of 2,370 seats and up to 170 tons of cargo capacity a week on the route.

The new service will operate on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. It will depart Dubai as EK727 at 16:55 and arrive in Dar es Salaam at 21:50. The return flight EK728 will depart Dar es Salaam at 23:30 and arrive in Dubai at 06:20 the next day.

The new frequency is expected to boost trade between Tanzania and various markets around Emirates SkyCargo’s global network. About 75% of the cargo exported from Tanzania are perishables, consisting of fresh, frozen and chilled fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood. The remainder of the exports are mainly household goods, jewellery, dry foods and automotive spare parts, while major imports are pharmaceuticals, automotive spare parts, electrical and electronic products and construction equipment and machinery.

“Dar es Salaam is an important destination in our east African network. In our last financial year we carried over 180,000 customers on the route, and we are expecting further growth with the introduction of the second service, which will offer our customers more choice and convenience from Tanzania to Dubai and onward to Europe, the Middle East, the United States, India and the Far East. Dar es Salaam will now become the second destination in east Africa, after Nairobi, to have more than a daily frequency, said Orhan Abbas, Emirates Senior Vice-President, Commercial Operations, Latin America, Central and Southern Africa.

The new five times weekly service will complement Emirates’ existing daily operation. The airline started a twice weekly service between Dubai and Dar es Salaam linked with Nairobi on 28 October 1997 using an Airbus A310-300. Following steady growth and demand on the route over the years, the frequency and capacity was increased and the flight was delinked from Nairobi, becoming a daily non-stop service between Dubai and Dar es Salaam in 2006.