Emirates (EK, Dubai International) will debut its first A350-900 service on September 15, 2024, with a daily roundtrip to Bahrain International followed by the start of A350 flights to Kuwait the next day. By the end of the year, it intends to have the type operating to three Gulf airports, three airports in South Asia, and three in Europe.
In a May 6 statement, Emirates detailed the rollout of the A350-900 onto routes this year. In addition to Bahrain and Kuwait, they include:
- Flights EK502/503 on the Dubai-Mumbai International city pair from October 27
- Flights EK538/539 on the Dubai-Ahmedabad city pair from October 27;
- Flights EK23/24 on the Dubai-Edinburgh city pair from November 4;
- Flights EK866/867 on the Dubai-Muscat city pair from December 1;
- Flights EK81/82 on the Dubai-Lyon St. Exupéry city pair from December 1;
- Flights EK93/94 on the Dubai-Bologna city pair from December 1; and
- Flights EK654/655 on the Dubai-Colombo International city pair from January 1.
"The A350 will be a game-changer for Emirates, enabling us to serve regional points with superior operating efficiency and flexibility across the Middle East and the Gulf, West Asia, and Europe," said Emirates CCO Adnan Kazim. "Flying the A350 to nine cities in such a short span of time adds more premium cabin options and choice across geographies for our customers, and ensures we maintain our competitive edge.”
Emirates has sixty-five A350-900s on order and says it expects to have ten in the air by the end of March 2025, all of them earmarked to service short and medium-haul routes. It said it would reveal more destinations in the coming months as new aircraft join its fleet. It expects to have all of the ordered A350s on the ground in Dubai by the end of 2028.
