Emirates boosts Switzerland, Seychelles capacity

Emirates airline has announced second daily A380 service to Swiss financial capital Zurich and is also increasing capacity on its double daily Seychelles service.

The Dubai carrier said it would add 945 seats a week on the Zurich route with 280 in First Class and Business Class.

Commencing on October 1, 2015, Emirates flights EK85/86, currently operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, will be upgraded to an A380.

The first A380 was introduced on the route in January 2014; since then, more than 345,000 passengers have chosen to fly Emirates’ flagship aircraft to and from Zurich.

“We anticipate that adding a second daily A380 to Zurich will not only enhance the travel experience of our passengers, but also stimulate trade and tourism between Switzerland, the Middle East, Africa and the Far East," said Hubert Frach, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations West.

"The additional A380 service from Zurich makes it even easier for travellers to enjoy a seamless Emirates A380 experience to key destinations like Mauritius, Bangkok, Shanghai, Sydney or Hong Kong, with just one stop at our hub in Dubai,” added Frach.

Emirates flight EK85 departs Dubai International Airport at 15.45hrs and arrives in Zurich at 20:20hrs. The outbound flight EK86 departs from Zurich at 22:15hrs and arrives in Dubai at 06:25hrs the following day.

Emirates also announced that it is set to increase its capacity to the popular Indian Ocean Island of Seychelles, when it switches from the current Airbus 330-200 used on one of the two daily services to a larger Boeing 777-300ER from June 1, 2015.

The introduction of the Emirates Boeing 777-300ER, which operates as flight EK 705 from Dubai and as EK 706 on the return flight, will increase overall capacity on the route by 1,722 seats per week and will make the route an all-Boeing 777 operation.

“The Seychelles is a very popular leisure destination, and we have experienced consistent growth on the route since we started operations to the island on 1 January 2005, with three weekly flights using an Airbus A330-200. Since then we have had to gradually increase our frequencies and deploy larger aircraft to meet growing demand, and now 10 years later, starting from 1 June we will have two Boeing 777s on the route,” said Orhan Abbas, Emirates Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Latin America, Central and Southern Africa.

“The island draws a lot of leisure travellers from across our network, with many coming from the Middle East, Europe and Russia. In 2014, Emirates carried well in excess of 200,000 customers to and from the Seychelles,” he added.

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