Emirates will serve the second daily with an Airbus A340-300 offering 267 seats in a three-class configuration - 12 seats in First Class, 42 in Business and 213 in Economy - and 13 tonnes of belly-hold cargo capacity. With the second daily, the airline will offer capacity in excess of 3,700 seats and 180 tonnes of cargo to Beijing every week.

Emirates, the Dubai-based global airline, will launch its double daily services to Beijing from 1st May, four months prior to celebrating the anniversary of its first flight to the city last year.

Initially the airline will increase its services from the current daily to 12 flights every week, and from 1st July the busy Dubai-Beijing route will feature a double-daily non-stop service.

Emirates has built strong bridges between these two cities - Beijing, the political and cultural capital of China, and Dubai, which is perfectly positioned as the gateway to the east and west, as well as to the north and south of the equator.

Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: "China is the new economic powerhouse and the world is beating a path to its capital Beijing. Since the launch of our Dubai-Beijing route last September, our seat load factors have consistently been above 80 per cent, with strong demand from countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, as well as USA. We are in the business of creating convenient global air networks for our customers - both passengers and cargo - and the upcoming Olympic Games in 2008 will increase the tempo of demand for our services to Beijing."

He added: "Our second daily to the city is win-win for customers, stakeholders and our business, which is the reason we earmarked the city for double dailies so soon after our launch. We are extremely grateful to the Chinese government and the airport authorities for their continuing support. Emirates is confident that our twice-daily flights will accelerate bilateral ties between the two countries in the political, social, cultural, trade and tourism spheres."

As a further sign of the blossoming bilateral relations between the two countries, earlier this month, the UAE and the China National Tourism Administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Chinese citizens' outbound travel to the UAE. This is the first step for the UAE receiving full ADS - Approved Destination Status - from the Chinese authorities. Once in full effect, it will significantly enhance the growth of Dubai's tourism and MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) markets. Last year, the bilateral trade volume between China and the UAE rose to US$ 14.2 billion, which is an increase of nearly 32 per cent.

Emirates began services to mainland China in 2004 with services to Shanghai, which it serves with daily non-stop Boeing 777-300ER flights offering nearly 2550 seats and 160 tonnes of cargo weekly. The airline also serves Hong Kong with 17 weekly passenger flights and 10 Boeing 747-400F freighter services - offering a total of 1200 tonnes of capacity.

Second Daily Flight Schedule

Current Dubai- Beijing Flight Schedule

Editor: Donald