Wednesday, Dec 05, 2007
Gulf News
Dubai: Emirates on Monday marked the beginning of a long-anticipated service when its first flight to Houston, Texas, landed at the George Bush International Airport.
The flight, carrying 266 passengers on Emirates' new Boeing 777-200LR, was met on arrival by the airline's Chairman and Chief Executive, Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, and Richard Vacar, director of aviation of the Houston Airport System.
Representing Emirates' second US gateway, the route will offer passengers the fastest link between Texas and the UAE with a 15-hour flight from Houston to Dubai and a flying time of approximately 17 hours to Houston.
The route follows the success of Emirates' first destination in the United States, New York which has been operating since 2004 and grown into a three-flights-a-day service.
The Houston service will operate three times a week and increase to daily on February 1.
The Boeing 777-200LR features eight private suites in First Class, 42 of its latest lie-flat seats in Business and generous space for 216 in Economy.
Additionally, the aircraft offers shippers up to 12 tonnes of cargo capacity.
"The launch to Houston comes on the heels of Emirates' historic aircraft order announcement made on November 11 at the Dubai Airshow when it signed contracts for a 120 Airbus A350s, 11 A380s, and 12 Boeing 777-300ERs, worth an estimated $34.9 billion in list prices.
"Emirates has looked forward to bringing business and tourism traffic to America's south and southwest and specifically to Houston and the state of Texas.
"With the growing demand, particularly from discerning business travellers, we are confident that the new service will prove to be very popular and we look forward to serving the region with our growing fleet," said Shaikh Ahmad.
Those aboard the inaugural flight included Paul Sutphin, American consul general for Dubai and the Northern Emirates and a delegation of senior Emirates executives, including Gaith Al Gaith, executive vice-president, commercial operations worldwide, and Hiran Perera, senior vice-president, Cargo Freighters.
Young fleet
Emirates operates one of the youngest fleets in the world. Houston is the latest of many new destinations on its' fast expanding international route network, which currently stands at 99 destinations in 62 countries.
Emirates currently employs more than 8,000 cabin crew representing more than 100 nationalities, including more than 100 crew members from North America.
Gulf News 2007. All rights reserved.
