Emirates plans San Francisco debut
Following the news that it would start services to Los Angeles, Emirates has announced plans to launch an additional service to the West Coast. The award-winning airline will fly non-stop from San Francisco to Dubai starting October 26th, 2008, taking its total number of U.S. destinations to four.
In pioneering spirit, Emirates will be the first to connect the two cities using its newest, technologically advanced Boeing 777-200LR on the route. The aircraft offers 266 seats in a three class configuration, including Emirates’ private First Class suites. The service will also offer 11 tons of cargo capacity in both directions.
Emirates Flight 226 departs San Francisco at 4:45pm daily and arrives in Dubai at 7:25pm the following day. As of November 2nd, the flight will depart an hour earlier, at 3:45pm.
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Emirates Flight 225 departs Dubai (DXB) at 8:45am daily and arrives in San Francisco (SFO) at 1:45pm. As of November 2nd, the flight will arrive in San Francisco 45 minutes earlier, at 1:00pm.
HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group said: “Providing fast, comfortable service to both U.S. coasts and points in between has been an important goal for us. There is a strong demand for connections between the San Francisco Bay Area and both Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. We see San Francisco as an integral part of our network development. The new service will additionally offer Americans better access to Dubai, the leading tourism center of the Middle East.”
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom expressed his enthusiasm for the announcement: “It’s my pleasure to welcome Emirates to San Francisco. We know this will be a long and advantageous relationship between two of the leading tourism centers of the world. We are honored to have been selected as a U.S. gateway for one of the world’s fastest growing international airlines.”
The distance between the two cities is 8,103 miles, which is a 15 hour 40 minute journey from San Francisco. The return flight from Dubai will be about 16 hours.
The new service will operate out of the International Terminal at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), one of the world’s 30 busiest airports.
John L. Martin, SFO Airport Director said: “San Francisco Airport strives to be the airport of choice for both airlines and passengers with a strong emphasis on customer service. Emirates Airline is known throughout the world for its detailed attention to passenger service, and we welcome the airline to SFO.”
San Francisco is the fourth-largest city in California with a population of 800,000 and is part of the greater San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined area with a population of over 7,000,000. The county’s economy is based on commercial industries such as technology, aerospace, agriculture, international trade and entertainment. It is also one of the top ten tourist destinations in the U.S.
Built on a foundation of legendary economic booms and historic cultural movements, San Francisco is best known for its relaxed lifestyle, natural beauty and cosmopolitan culture and has created its place in the American vernacular as both progressive and thriving.
Emirates passengers enjoy an array of cutting edge product offerings such as the airline’s award-winning ice Digital Widescreen product (information, communication, entertainment) which offers over 1,000 channels of entertainment in all classes and nearly 1,700 hours of video and audio entertainment, outstanding service from Emirates’ international cabin crew recruited from over 100 countries around the world and meals prepared by gourmet chefs.
San Francisco is the fifth new destination that Emirates has announced it will be introducing this year. The airline launched its Cape Town service on March 30th and will start services to Calicut, India and Guangzhou, China, both on July 1st, as well as to Los Angeles on September 1st. San Francisco augments the airline’s American expansion, which now includes two gateways in California, the U.S. southwest with Houston, and the eastern seaboard with two daily services to New York’s JFK International Airport.
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