Emirates To Launch Venice Flights Next July

Media Release 19 December 2006

Emirates To Launch Venice Flights Next July; Connections From NZ

Dubai-based international airline Emirates today announced it will launch non-stop services to the city of Venice, its third Italian destination after Milan and Rome, from July 2007.

The service, initially five-times-a-week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, will increase two months later to a daily service. Emirates will operate an Airbus A330-200 on the route, offering 27 Business class seats, and 251 in Economy; plus 13 tonnes of bellyhold space for cargo.

Providing convenient connections to travellers flying on all Emirates flights from New Zealand, flight EK135 is scheduled to depart Dubai at 9:45 am, arriving in Venice at 2:15 pm on the same day. The return flight EK136 will leave Venice at 3:45 pm, arriving in Dubai at 11:35 that same evening.

Emirates' Dubai-Venice flight will create a new non-stop connection that is expected to foster a greater flow of tourism and business traffic between one of the Middle East's fastest-developing leisure and business hubs, and the thriving commercial region of Veneto in northern Italy.

HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group said: "We are delighted to have the opportunity to expand our services to Italy and are pleased to offer a new direct link between Dubai and Venice.

"Venice is a popular tourism destination and an important gateway in northern Italy for commerce. Our new service will contribute to Italy's many flourishing small and medium-sized businesses by providing increased access from Venice to other major cities around the globe via Dubai, and vice-versa. Our flights will also provide added capacity for the transportation of goods vital to Italian industries."

Emirates Airline currently operates daily flights to Rome and Milan with wide-bodied Boeing 777 and Airbus 330-200 aircraft. One of the world's fastest growing and most successful airlines, Emirates flies a modern fleet of 101 aircraft to 87 cities in 59 countries. In 2006, the airline introduced 11 new cities to its expanding global route network: Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Bangalore, Barcelona (cargo-only), Beijing, Hamburg, Kolkata, Lilongwe (cargo-only), Nagoya, Thiruvananthapuram and Tunis.

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