Emirates today unveiled plans to boost capacity to London with the addition of a 10th daily flight to the British capital starting this October.

From October 1, the new service - Emirates' fourth daily flight to London Gatwick - will complement its six daily services to Heathrow and take the airline's total weekly services to the city to 70.

The Dubai-London Gatwick service will be operated by a state-of-the-art Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in a three-class configuration, with eight Private Suites in First Class, 42 lie flat seats in Business Class and 310 spacious seats in Economy Class.

"Emirates started serving London Gatwick in July 1987; since then over 10 million passengers have travelled on the route. As a global hub for finance, business and tourism, London attracts travellers from all over the world," said Hubert Frach, Emirates’ divisional senior vice president, commercial operations, West. "With British expats forming the largest western community in Dubai, it’s not surprising to witness continued strong demand for travel between Dubai and the five cities we currently serve in the UK," added Frach.

“We are delighted with Emirates’ decision to introduce a fourth daily service from Gatwick to Dubai. The new service follows the strong performance of Emirates’ Dubai routes from Gatwick, with increasing demand from both business and leisure passengers, said Stewart Wingate, Gatwick Airport’s CEO. “Emirates passengers expect the exceptional service and world-class facilities that Gatwick now provides.  This fourth daily service to Dubai complements Gatwick’s growing network of long haul connections with over 50 global destinations flown to this year alone,” added Wingate.

Customers on Emirates’ flights enjoy the hospitality of its multi-national cabin crew, including over 2,000 British nationals, as well as gourmet cuisine and Emirates’ award-winning ice entertainment system. With more than 2,500 channels of on-demand entertainment, from movies, television programmes, games, audio books, and music from around the world, ice has been named the world’s best inflight entertainment system by Skytrax for 11 consecutive years. As with all Emirates flights, passengers also enjoy generous baggage allowances: 50 kg in First Class, 40 kg in Business Class, and 30 kg in Economy Class.

Passengers travelling in premium cabins from Gatwick Airport will enjoy a brand new, exclusive drop-off zone for Emirates’ Chauffeur-drive service where porters will assist with their luggage. Emirates also operates a dedicated lounge for First and Business Class passengers which was recently refurbished.

The new flight EK 023 will depart Dubai at 0950hrs on October 1, arriving in London at 1430hrs. The return flight, EK 024, will leave London at 1650hrs, arriving in Dubai at 0240hrs the next day.

With an additional daily cargo capacity of nearly 20 tonnes in each direction, Emirates SkyCargo helps connect customers in the UK with cities around the world. Top exports include perishables, construction equipment, electronics and automotive and aircraft spare parts. SkyCargo also operates a dedicated freighter service to London Heathrow twice a week. - TradeArabia News Service