According to Georgian daily newspaper The Financial, since launching flights to Lisbon in July 2012 “Emirates has recorded a significant increase in customer demand to and from the city with an average capacity growth of 15 percent per year.”
A spokesperson for the airline said there is “clearly a need for another daily service to satisfy this demand” and “The additional service will provide customers in Africa, the Far East and Australasia, the Middle East and West Asia with even easier access to Lisbon, supporting the burgeoning business and leisure traffic between these markets and Portugal.”
In comments to The Financial, Hubert Frach, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice President Commercial Operations West, said: “In the last three years our flights to Lisbon have gone from strength to strength both on the passenger and cargo side. There is clearly a need for another daily service to satisfy this demand, which is why we will start a second daily flight from 1 January 2016.”
Frach added: “We continue to work closely with Visit Portugal to ensure a coordinated and sustained approach to attracting inbound tourism numbers to Portugal. Given our broad global network and convenient one-stop connection through Dubai we are confident that this second daily flight will help boost visitor numbers to Portugal even further.”
The expansion in services to Lisbon by Emirates follows the recent announcement of the airline as shirt sponsor for the Benfica football team until the end of the 2017/18 season, further reinforcing the airline’s commitment to Portugal.
Operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, the new flight will offer eight First Class Suites, 42 lie-flat Business Class seats and 310 spacious Economy Class seats.
Flight EK 193 is scheduled to leave Dubai every day at 2.40pm and arrive in Lisbon at 7.20pm.
The return flight, EK 194, will depart Lisbon at 9pm and arrives in Dubai at 8.45am the following morning (local times).