Dubai-based Emirates airline will add a 13th weekly flight between Kolkata and its home hub in Dubai on March 29, apart from operating a larger aircraft on the route.

The inbound service offers convenient connections with several regions within Emirates network, including many of the 37 European, 17 Middle Eastern and 20 African cities airline serves. With this additional service, Emirates will operate 186 weekly flights across its network of 10 Indian destinations.

Additionally, Emirates will also begin operating a larger Boeing 777-200ER on the Kolkata route as flight numbers EK 570 and EK 571, which will offer Emirates’ renowned First Class service. The Boeing is an up-gauge from the existing A330-200, with a capacity for 274 passengers.

The new service and the up-gauge will represent a capacity increase of 250 seats in each direction per week.

Moreover, Emirates will be the only airline operating a First Class cabin to the city.

“Emirates commenced flights to Kolkata on March 26, 2006 – the seventh city in India we launched flights to. Since then we have flown over 1.6 million people and 55,260 tonnes of cargo on this popular route. On the milestone of completing nine successful years of operations to Kolkata, we are happy to offer an extra weekly flight to passengers flying to the city which not only increases their choice of flight times but also introduces increased capacity and a First Class cabin for our premium customers,” said Ahmed Khoory, senior vice president, Commercial Operations – West Asia and Indian Ocean, Emirates Airline.

“The additional flight and increased capacity also means strengthening of travel options available not just to Kolkata, but the entire east and north-east India region. We hope this capacity addition will help connect even more people to the market, and facilitate greater trade to the region and its economy,” he said. – TradeArabia News Service