Emirates increases flights to Cochin

Air travellers between Dubai and Cochin can now benefit from five Emirates flights per week, up from the current three.

The additional flights on Saturdays and Sundays started last Saturday (April 19th).

Under the new schedule, Emirates will fly non-stop between Dubai and Cochin, in the South Indian State of Kerala, every day except Tuesdays and Thursdays. The award-winning airline will operate an Airbus A330-200 aircraft on the route with a three-cabin service offering 18 First Class, 42 Business Class and 183 Economy Class seats. The inaugural Cochin flight was made on 2nd December 2002.

Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Emirates’ flight EK530 will depart Dubai at 0350hrs, arriving in Cochin at 0905hrs. The return flight, EK531, will leave Cochin later in the morning at 1020hrs, touching  down in Dubai at 1245hrs. All times are local. Since Sat/Sun are weekends in India, the new flights are expected to carry heavy passenger loads.

Nabil Sultan, Emirates’ General Manager for India & Nepal, said: "In the four months since its inception, Emirates has received an excellent response.  This has led us to an increase in flights to Kerala. We will continue to develop our India network to support customer demand and provide our passengers with the services they require."

Emirates currently flies to five destinations in India: Cochin in the South, Delhi in the North, Mumbai in the West, and Chennai and Hyderabad in the East. With the inclusion of the new additional Dubai-Cochin services, the total number of Emirates flights from India to Dubai will be 42 per week.

Mr Sultan added: “We would like to thank the Kerala State Government and Indian Civil Aviation Authorities for their cooperation in enabling Emirates to increase services to five times a week, between Dubai and Cochin.”

The new flights are expected to cater to the strong demand for seats on the Dubai-Cochin sector, as well as bring in tourism and business revenues for the State of Kerala. Passengers include tourist and business traffic such  as skilled professionals like nurses, technology experts and students.

Cochin is one of 64 destinations on the Emirates network, which covers 45 countries on four continents. The network will be further expanded when the airline starts services to Moscow on 1st July, Shanghai on 2nd August, Brisbane on 26th October and Lagos (subject to government approval) on 1st December. Emirates is also planning to start operations to North America (subject to government approval) in 2004, with delivery of the long-range Airbus A340-500 aircraft.