Dubai: Emirates airline has announced plans to increase its flights to Madinah to seven per week from 31st October 2010.
“The airline remains committed to the Kingdom with a total of 25 flights per week operating through its four gateways. These three new services will bring the number to 28 flights per week, as well as increasing additional capacity to the Kingdom by 15 per cent,” a statement from the airline said.
Madinah, where the first Islamic state was founded by Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), is the second most important city to Muslims as it host’s the prophet’s holy shrine. Muslim pilgrims make it a point to visit Madinah while performing Haj and Umrah and this is driving demand for additional flights.
Emirates first flew to Madinah in July 2010. The service remains on a temporary schedule until March 26, 2011.
From October 31, flights to Madinah will depart from Dubai each day at 1.15am, arriving in Madinah at 3.15am. On the return journey, the flight will depart from Madinah at 4.45am, arriving in Dubai at 8.15am. Emirates currently has four scheduled flights, departing on a Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“Saudi Arabia is an important market for Emirates and our new daily service to Al Madinah Al Munawarah is key to our continued growth there. In the last two years we have increased operations to the Kingdom from 17 to 25 weekly flights and we will continue to work closely with the Saudi authorities to implement additional services,” said Ahmad Khoory, the airline’s Senior Vice President Commercial Operations, Gulf, Middle East and Iran.
“This daily service will offer our customers in the Kingdom even more choice, helping to connect both business and leisure travellers not only to Dubai, but also to our extensive network around the world. There is significant demand for travel in and out of Al Madinah Al Munawarah and we are confident that these new flights will be well received by our customers,” he said.
