Airline News
Emirates to fly to Panama amid U.S. overcapacity allegations
August 17th 2015
Emirates Airline will launch a daily Dubai-Panama City service on February 1, next year, the longest non-stop flight in the world, with a travel time of 17 hours 35 minutes heading westbound. It will be operated by a B777-200LR, seating eight in first, 42 in business and 216 in economy class, as well as carrying 15 tons of cargo. Read More » The approximately 8,500-mile flight will be Emirates’ first gateway destination in Central America and will be ideal for connections from Africa, Asia and the Gulf. Later this year, Emirates will be adding four routes to its network: Mashhad in Iran and the U.S.’s Orlando in September, Bamako, Mali in October and Bologna in Italy in November.
The Gulf vs U.S. Open Skies dispute rages on. Emirates said last week that the Gulf carriers were not to blame for overcapacity between the U.S. and Dubai, rejecting an earlier statement by U.S. carrier, Delta Air Lines, that said the Atlanta-headquartered carrier was reducing service to Dubai “amid overcapacity on U.S. routes to the Middle East operated by government-owned and subsidized airlines”.
"Their (Delta's) attempt to pin the blame on the "Gulf carrier threat" is plainly a political play, or a thin excuse to prop up fares at a higher level by limiting capacity," an Emirates spokesperson said in a return statement. Emirates, which referred to U.S. Department of Transportation data, said average loads during 2013-2014 on the Atlanta-Dubai route had been consistently above 85%, which showed consumer demand or overcapacity were not the issues. United Airlines’ Dubai-Washington service will remain as the only daily U.S. carrier-operated flight between the U.S. and the Gulf after United pulled out of Doha last year.
