Orlando
 

Get those ASR's fired up ladies and gents, here comes another 24hr USA layover...

According to the GDS, Effective 01SEP15, Emirates will begin daily flights to Orlando using a B777-200LR. The schedules are:

EK 219 DXB MCO 0350 1140
EK 220 MCO DXB 1420 1230+1

In addition,

Effective 07JUL15, second daily flight to Seattle using a B777-200LR. The schedules are:

EK 227 DXB SEA 0315 0655
EK 228 SEA DXB 0940 1055+1

Cargo hold going out full with Boeing spares. Rumor has it they have a big contract with Boeing.

Furthermore,

EK reps at this winters LA Times travel show, stated LAX was going back to double daily by the end of 2015, pending additional aircraft deliveries.

Most likely going to be operated by the 77W.

The additional daily SEA flight and new MCO flight (10th U.S. destination) bring the total U.S. weekly flights to 98. Pretty impressive.

STC did mention late last year that the ultimate goal is to have North America account for 1/3 of EK's revenue. Which requires a doubling in capacity.

The 422/3 to Perth will stop, which is a shame as it was the only Perth trip that arrived and departed there at a civilised hour of the day.

Correct, this frees up the 77L for the new EK227/8 to SEA.

EK422/1 is switching from 77W to A380 effective 01MAY15

EK 422 DXB PER 0255 1735
EK 421 PER DXB 2210 0525+1

I think you're thinking of EK420.

You are correct. :ok:


EK 420 DXB PER 0255 1735
EK 421 PER DXB 2210 0525+1

Company email quotes 15:50 outbound and 14:10 inbound.

Never say never but I don't believe they'll try the 24/30 hours on this one. Would be foolish and invite a snowstorm of ASRs if they did :ouch:

Having Orlando added raises the question of why this has come before Miami. A closer look at the RAIG sees that Miami doesn't exist, yet Fort Lauderdale is an approved EK alternate.

Has something somewhere gone disastrously wrong for EK and Miami?

QR was first to Miami last year, and is currently operating 5x/week with a 77L. Will be going 7x/week and 77W shortly. QR is in Oneworld as is their partner American Airlines, who is king at MIA. I think EK wants to sit this one out until the market matures.

Tampa is ~90 miles away from MCO and has some ME/India/asia bound traffic of its own, which will surely find the new EK flight rather convenient. I suspect MCO will be relatively low yielding and high volume. The city of Orlando has put in lots of effort into bringing EK to town. Besides the Euro charters and Virgin which are focused on the leisure traffic on this route, Lufthansa is the only premium carrier flying into MCO offering countless connection opportunities via their Frankfurt hub.

LAX 2x daily is next, and I suspect BOS 2x daily as well.

ORD is upgauged to a 77W from 01MAY15.

Just like ORD?

ORD is slightly shorter @ 14:50 - 13:45, but your point is well made.

Not my fleet and I can't write them for you!

I think there is a little more behind the story because as things stand Miami doesn't even exist as an airport far as we are concerned at EK. It's quite interesting as most major airports will be classified in some shape or form in our route manual, even for diversion purposes, but Miami is no where to be seen.

I maybe reading too much into it but it could be the case, that for some reason or another, EK is not welcome in Miami.

I have been twice to Miami in the freighter.

Ah thanks for that SOPS - that proves that I was speaking hot air! :)

Interesting that it is not in the RAIG though. I couldn't find it at least!

Miami is one of AA/UsAirways biggest hubs and gateways to Latin and S. America. Qatar is in the One World alliance. Too much code share to deal with. Maybe it's one of the reasons a lot of the DFW loads are light compared to other U.S. destinations. Just a thought.

Miami......only a three hour drive to Margaritaville!

A while back, the powers at be at Emirates made what is now realized to be a rather costly mistake in some negotiations with American Airlines regarding the revenue sharing agreements. To say the least, this went very bad. The long and short of it is AA decided not to continue ANY sort of agreement with EK (Unfortunately, this also led to our reciprocal agreements with staff travel also being removed) To make a long story short, this was a tremendously bad decision on behalf of EK. Shortly after this happened, Qatar joined the OneWorld, which has exasperated the already bad decision. Fast forward to today, and I can tell you that not only are passenger numbers down, but the yields in Dallas are through the floor. The only reason the A380 is there is to try to pull market share back, which will not happen more than likely. Unfortunately, with zero agreement with American Airlines and that not coming back any time soon, Miami is not viable as there is nobody to connect EK's pax to onward destinations and the market to the city itself will not sustain itself. Dallas is in a world of hurt as well. As what was said in a different, unrelated forum, "you reap what you sow EK"

A) EK operates 380 to spite EY. And I had your EY boss on board back to DXB on a flight before Christmas last year. Mr J.H himself...

B) The DFW flights that I have operated have been choc-a-bloc full...

As for now? And the yields? Do I care?

Orlando is a JetBlue hub.
Says so in the blurb that came with the announcement.

halas