DUBAI, Jan.26th,2006 (WAM) -- Emirates, the Dubai-basedinternational airline, has expanded its internet check-in facilityto seven major cities in Africa, making the convenient facilityavailable to customers in 55 cities served by the airline acrossEurope, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Australasia.
Passengers travelling from Accra, Alexandria, Cairo, Entebbe,Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi can now select and secure their preferred seats, and check-in for their Emirates flightfrom the convenience of their homes, hotels or offices by loggingon to www.emirates.com.This internet check-in facility has proved popular with Emirates'customers since it was launched in October last year. Initiallyintroduced to travellers in four cities, the success of the servicehas prompted its rapid expansion across Emirates' network. Theairline intends to eventually offer internet check-in to allcities it serves, where technologically possible.
Available between 12 and two hours prior to flight departure,Emirates' internet check-in service allows passengers to selecttheir seat from those available at the time. Once the check-inprocess has been completed, passengers will be provided an onlinecheck-in receipt. They can then proceed to a dedicated Emiratescounter at the airport to exchange the receipt for a boardingpass. Passengers with check-in luggage need to arrive 90 minutes priorto departure and those carrying only hand luggage need to arrive60 minutes prior to departure. The online service also allowsfor passengers to check-in for groups of up to nine persons travellingtogether, as well as connecting flights on Emirates (within awindow of 24 hours), further shortening waiting times. From its Dubai hub, Emirates currently flies to over 75 destinationsin 55 countries. The fast-growing airline has also announcedplans to introduce seven new destinations in 2006 - Abidjan (CoteD'Ivoire), Thiruvananthapuram (India), Hamburg (Germany), AddisAbaba (Ethiopia), Kolkata (India), Nagoya (Japan) and Beijing(China).
