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29 March 2024

Emirates to begin Chicago flights

Published
By Staff

Emirates Airline today announced that it is launching a daily service to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Terminal 5 from August 5, 2014.
The service will be operated by a Boeing 777-200LR powered by GE90 engines.

Chicago will become the airline’s ninth gateway in the USA, following soon after the commencement of its services to Boston, Massachusetts on March 10, 2014.

Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline, said: “Chicago has long been a destination in the United States which Emirates has wished to serve. Like Dubai, Chicago is a major global trade and transportation hub with great cultural diversity that is an economic engine for its region. We welcome the chance to establish a non-stop trade bridge between these two great cities and, via our Dubai hub, to more efficiently link Chicago area passengers and shippers with our international network beyond Dubai to 125 destinations spanning six continents. This is good news for trade and tourism for both cities, and jobs that rely on both, as well as for consumers who will benefit from greater competitive choice.”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said: “Chicago welcomes Emirates, one of the world’s largest international airlines, to our city.”

He said: “Air transport links are critical for trade and tourism, and Emirates’ non-stop daily flights to Dubai will only add to our global connectivity and further our goal to host 55 million visitors by 2020, in turn generating jobs not only at the airport but across Chicago’s travel and hospitality industries.”

Chicago is also a significant convention hub, and home to many of the US’s largest companies including Boeing, which is a very important supplier partner of Emirates.  Emirates is the largest operator of Boeing 777 aircraft in the world, with a fleet of 122 passenger and 10 freighter Boeing 777s currently in its fleet, and is a launch customer of Boeing’s new 777X having placed the largest single order in commercial aviation history for 150 of them valued at $76 billion in November 2013.

The new service will operate as flight EK 235 from Dubai International Airport at 09:45 hours arriving into Chicago at 15:25. The return flight, EK 236 will depart O’Hare at 20:35 hours, arriving into Dubai at 19:10 the next day.

On board, passengers will be able to enjoy Emirates’ renowned inflight service from our multi-lingual crew from over 120 countries, gourmet on-board dining and multi-award winning inflight entertainment system, ice Digital Widescreen, featuring up to 1,600 channels of movies, TV programmes, music and podcasts, in a three cabin configuration featuring 8 private First Class suites, 42 Business Class suites and 216 Economy Class seats.

In addition to carrying passengers, the aircraft will also carry up to 17 tonnes of cargo to further increase the trade opportunities between Dubai and Chicago. Emirates already operates a twice weekly dedicated freighter service to Chicago which in 2013 carried nearly 7,400 tonnes of cargo from the city and over 4,200 into the city.

The US and the UAE enjoy strong commercial and political ties. In 2012, US exports to the UAE reached a record high of $22.5 billion, an increase of 42% over 2011 and higher than any other country in the Middle East.  A significant portion of those exports to the UAE came in the form of Boeing aircraft for Emirates. In 2012, Illinois exported $364 million of goods and services to the UAE, including vehicles and construction equipment supporting a workforce of nearly 3,500 in the state.