Emirates launches its daily flights to Brussels

Brussels An Emirates aircraft landed at Brussels international Airport on Friday afternoon, marking the launch of the new route by the airline to the European capital.

Emirates’ new route to Brussels “is fundamental and the connection to the Gulf is essential [to the European country],” said Thierry Aucoc, Emirates’ Senior Vice President for Commercial Operations for Europe and Russian Federation upon the landing of the Boeing 777 200-LR.

After landing, the plane was escorted at the tarmac by six yellow cars from the airport security. Shortly before it completely stopped, it was welcomed by water cannons and seconds later was sprayed by water in the presence of journalists from both Dubai and Brussels gathered at one side of the tarmac.

With the addition of the Belgian capital to its network, Emirates now flies to 37 destinations in Europe and 145 destinations in the world.

When asked about the tens of daily flights between Dubai and European capitals, Aucoc told Gulf News in an interview “that business is good in Europe and there is a demand,” for flights.

Choosing destinations by Emirates to different parts of the world including Europe is usually a “a long, long process” and takes a lot of analysis, he stressed.

Emirates, he added, targets three categories of passengers when it decides to launch a route. They include visitors to Dubai itself, transit passengers through Dubai and those who transit in Dubai for few days before continue their travel to other destinations, including those in the Far East. The last category has great demand, he noted.

On the other hand, Belgium enjoys a prominent status that makes the new route more important, said Sulaiman Hamid Al Mazroui, UAE Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and European Union.

“It is very important to connect Brussels with the UAE with direct and regular air connections, since the [European] city is the capital of Europe and the headquarters for the European Union and Nato [North Atlantic Treaty Organisation] and several European organisations and institutions,” Al Mazroui told Gulf News.

While noting that Etihad has already direct flights between Abu-Dhabi and Brussels, he added that Emirates’ new route is not expected to serve only the UAE citizens, but also other citizens of other Gulf countries as well as the European counties.

Already, strong trade relations connect the two countries. Bilateral trade last year reached nearly 6 billion euros. “UAE is the biggest Arab country in terms of its trade with Belgium,” Al Mazroui.

UAE citizens in Belgium arrive for tourism, medical treatment or investments, he added.

There are already nearly 3,000 Belgium citizens in UAE, said Christiaan Tanghe, Ambassador of Kingdom of Belgium told Gulf News, many of whom are in Dubai. Christiaan proudly noted that many pilots at Emirates are from Belgium including those who fly the giant A380s.