Dubai. Emirates says it has strengthened its links to West Africa with the launch of a new direct service to Dakar.
A company spokesman said: “EK 797 took off this morning for the airline's 105th destination, creating the only non-stop, scheduled passenger link between Dubai and Senegal”.
“The new route will cut current journey times to Dakar by around the equivalent of an eight hour working day, creating an easy, fast and convenient service for business and leisure travellers”
Nigel Page, Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations, Africa and the Americas said: “Today marks a new chapter in air travel between the Middle East and West Africa”.
“No more will passengers travelling to and from Senegal face long detours to Europe or other parts of Africa to reach their final destination,” Page said.
“Instead, they can enjoy the convenience of a non-stop air link with Dubai, seamless connections to key centres in the Middle East, the Indian Sub-continent, Asia and the Far East through our state-of-the-art Terminal 3, a very competitive baggage allowance and the award-winning in-flight service for which Emirates is renowned."
A company spokesman said EK 797 would depart Dubai at 0955 hours every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and arrive in Dakar at 1600 hours. EK 798 would leave the Senegalese capital at 1740 hours and get into Dubai at 0715 hours the following day.
An Airbus A340-300 would be deployed on the route, offering 12 seats in first class, 42 in business and 213 in economy, the company said.
Emirates said Dakar was the fifth new route it had launched this year. The others were Tokyo, which launched on March 28, Amsterdam on May 1, Prague on July 1 and Madrid, on August 1.
