Emirates takes off to Haneda
Emirates last week celebrated the start of its daily non-stop service from Dubai to Tokyo Inter national Airport (Haneda) with the launch of its inaugural flight.
“We value our partnership with Tokyo International Airport; it is one that helps to connect two global hubs of development and growth - Japan and the UAE. We know that Haneda will play an integral role in our route network and the launch of services demonstrates Emirates’ commitment to Japan,” said Emirates Executive Vice President Passenger Sales Worldwide Thierry Antinori.
“Since the commencement of Emirates’ flights to Osaka in 2002, trade relations between Japan and UAE have flourished. According to Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), twoway trade between the UAE and Japan rose to US $ 53.1 billion in 2012, up by 5.4 percent compared to the previous year,” continued Antinori.
“Haneda is our third gateway in Japan and we are confident that the demand in terms of both passengers and cargo is strong enough to warrant Emirates operating non-stop, daily flights to both of Tokyo’s airports, offering our passengers more flexibility on the route to Dubai and onwards to over 70 destinations in the Indian Ocean, Middle East, Africa and Europe,” concluded Antinori.
On-board Emirates’ first flight to Haneda was E m i r at e s S e n i o r Vi c e President Commercial Operation Far East and Australasia Salem Obaidalla, Consul General of Japan Daisuke Matsunaga, Emirates Vice President Cargo Commercial Ravishankar Mirle, media representatives from the United Arab Emirates and connecting passengers from 17 destinations on Emirates’ global network.
Together with the new Haneda flight service, Emirates has launched complimentary airport transfer services for its passengers from Haneda Airport directly to a location of their choice in the Greater Tokyo area. This service is available to First Class and Business Class passengers travelling on Emirates flight EK312 (Dubai to Haneda) or EK313 (Haneda to Dubai).
The aircraft also features ‘Ice’, Emirates’ award-winning inflight entertainment system which offers over 1,400 channels showing the latest Japanese blockbusters, subtitled Hollywood films and Japanese music and TV.
Emirates now operates services to 134 destinations in 77 countries from Dubai. Earlier this year, Emirates launched services to Warsaw and Algiers. In addition to Haneda, Emirates has announced plans to launch services to Stockholm starting September 4, Clark Inter national Airport (Philippines) beginning on October 1 - the same day as it begins its transatlantic route between Milan and New York.
Emirates’ longstanding partnership with Japan Airlines has been expanded to include a code share on the new Dubai-Haneda-Dubai services. The flights will be identified with the Emirates ‘EK’ code as well as with Japan Airlines ‘JL’ code.