Dubai-based Emirates airline plans to add Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali, to its global network from October 25.

Bamako is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with a population of about 2.3 million people, and is located in the south western part of Mali on the Niger River.

Once services commence, it will become Emirates’ 28th destination in Africa and sixth in West Africa.

Bamako will be linked to Emirates’ current four times weekly service to Dakar, Senegal, which is operated by an Emirates Airbus A340-300 and offers 12 luxurious seats in First Class, 42 deep reclining seats in Business Class and 213 spacious seats in Economy Class.

“There is currently no direct service between Dubai and Bamako. Mali has a growing economy and huge tourism potential, and we expect that linking Bamako to our Dakar service will greatly boost both business and leisure travel to and from Mali,” said Adil Al Ghaith, Emirates senior vice president, commercial operations, Northern and Western Africa.

Mali is one of Africa’s top gold producers, and it also boasts four Unesco world heritage sites, including the famous city of Timbuktu, the Old Towns of Djenne, the Tomb of Askia and the Cliff of Bandiagara.

Emirates’ Malian customers can look forward to the airline’s world famous service from its multi-national cabin crew on board all its flights, gourmet cuisine and its award-winning entertainment system ice, which offers hundreds of channels of audio and visual entertainment, including the latest movies, music, as well as audio books and games. Emirates also offers its customers generous baggage allowance, with 50 kg for First Class, 40 kg for Business Class and 30 kg for Economy Class.

In addition to passenger services, Emirates SkyCargo, the airline’s freight division, offers about 13 tonnes of cargo capacity per flight, which will further support Mali’s exports, such as seed oil, leather, fresh fruit and semi-conductors, and imports of woven fabrics, machinery parts and components, pharmaceutical products and electrical and electronic equipment. – TradeArabia News Service