Tourism chiefs welcome new daily flights from Edinburgh to Dubai
● New route to key Middle East hub from capital ‘great news for Scotland’
A new daily flight will connect Scotland’s capital with Dubai.
Emirates Airline has announced that the year round service from edinburgh will begin in early October and becomes the third daily flight from Scotland to the Middle Eastern city.
The airline already flies to the UAE from Glasgow twice a day.
Marc Crothall, chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, said the move was “great news for Scottish tourism”.
He said: “The link between Edinburgh and the world’s busiest airport presents a whole new wave of market opportunities for Scotland’s tourism industry, both from a visitor and business tourism perspective.”
Malcom Roughhead, chief executive of Visitscotland, said: “Visitscotland is delighted to welcome Emirates’ move to increase its daily services between Dubai and Scotland.
“The recently launched campaign, Scotland Is Now, extends an invitation to visit, live, work, study and invest in Scotland and these investments will not only benefit Scots wishing to travel to Dubai for leisure or business but help increase inbound tourism from UAE, Australasia, China and further afield.”
The route will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER in a three-class cabin configuration, with eight private suites in first class, 42 lie-flat seats in business class and 304 seats in economy class.
Hubert Frach, Emirates’ divisional senior vice-president, said: “We’re increasing our capacity to Scotland to meet growing demand. And by introducing a daily flight to Edinburgh, it will complement our current double dai- ly flights between Dubai and Glasgow.”
Gordon De war, chief executive of edinburgh airport, said: “This is a fantastic announcement as we welcome another world-renowned airline to Scotland’s busiest airport – a clear statement that Edinburgh Airport is the gateway to Scotland.”
Transport minister Humza Yousaf described the announcement as “excellent news”.