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Fastest
UAE-Texas link by Emirates non-stop flight to Houston
Emirates,
the Dubai-based, award-winning international airline, touched down
on 3rd December at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport,
marking the beginning of a long-anticipated service.
The flight, carrying 266 passengers on Emirates’ new, state-of-the
art Boeing 777-200LR, was met on arrival by Emirates’ Chairman
and Chief Executive, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, and Richard
Vacar, Director of Aviation of the Houston Airport System.
Representing Emirates’ second U.S. gateway, the new route will
offer business and leisure travellers the fastest link between Texas
and the UAE with a 15 hour flight from Houston to Dubai and a return
of approximately 17 hours. The route follows on the success of Emirates’
first destination in the United States, New York which has been
operating since 2004 and grown to become a three-flights-a-day service.
The Houston service will operate three times a week, increasing
to daily on 1st February 2008. The new Boeing 777-200LR features
eight luxurious 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 falls on the heels of Emirates historic aircraft
order announcement made on 11th November at the Dubai Air Show when
it signed contracts for a 120 Airbus A350s, 11 A380s, and 12 Boeing
777-300ERs, worth an estimated US$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 Sheikh Ahmed.
Dignitaries onboard the inaugural flight included Mr. Paul Sutphin,
American Consul General for Dubai and the northern Emirates and
a delegation of senior Emirates executives comprising Ghaith al
Ghaith, Executive Vice President Commercial Operations Worldwide
and Hiran Perera, Senior Vice President Cargo Freighters.
The service was operated by an entirely American flight crew: Captain
Jeffrey Hoyt, Captain Ahmed Kakar, First Officer Gregory Lampke
and First Officer Trond Tennes.
Emirates operates one of the youngest aircraft fleets and offers
passengers some of the industry’s most modern amenities and
technologies in air travel, including its award-winning ICE –information,
communication and entertainment system. The latest ICE Digital Widescreen
system on Emirates’ 777-200LR aircraft offers passengers a
selection of more than 1000 channels of entertainment on demand
and the ability to send and receive email and text messages from
their personal in-seat entertainment systems. Emirates passengers
are also treated to multi-course meals prepared by gourmet chefs
in all three classes.
For its young travellers, Emirates offers special amenities including
a children’s menu, onboard activity packs, as well as baby
bassinets, baby change tables and a food/bottle heating service.
Houston is the latest of many new destinations on Emirates’
fast expanding international route network, which currently stands
at 99 destinations in 62 countries. This year, Emirates also
introduced non-stop services from Dubai to Venice, Newcastle, Sao
Paulo, Toronto and Ahmedabad. Emirates currently employs more than
8,000 cabin crew representing more than 100 nationalities, including
more than 100 crew members from North America. In total, the airline
employs more than 200 Americans within the entire group of which
there are 114 American flight crew.
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