Emirates will add a fourth daily flight on its Johannesburg route, starting March 1 next year.
This follows the recent launch of the second daily A380 between Dubai and Johannesburg on September 1.
The fourth daily service will be operated on a three-class Boeing 777-300ER, offering an additional 354 seats from OR Tambo. According to an Emirates source, South Africans will have to be patient – this country is not yet on the list of those to receive the much-vaunted Premium Economy cabin in the short term, at least.
The fourth daily flight will introduce a morning departure from Johannesburg on the following schedule:
Adnan Kazim, Emirates Deputy President and COO, said Emirates had now reinstated the capacity it offered to South Africa pre-pandemic, with 49 weekly flights across three gateways (Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban).
Customers taking advantage of the expanded Emirates schedule to Johannesburg can reach a further 60 regional points in Africa via codeshare and interline agreements with four key partners.
Emirates and SAA first established a codeshare arrangement back in 1997, one of the oldest partnerships in Emirates’ history, enabling single-ticket travel to and from all three South African gateways, including 12 destinations via Johannesburg.
Emirates' codeshare with Airlink opens up a further 44 regional cities, while its interline agreement with CemAir provides access to exclusive leisure points such as Margate and Plettenberg Bay.
Similarly, the agreement with FlySafair enables travel to domestic points such as Port Elizabeth, East London and George.
Since Emirates’ inaugural flight to Johannesburg in June 1995, the airline has scaled operations, increased frequencies and gateways to Cape Town and Durban and served over 20 million passengers to and from the market.
In October 2011, Emirates first deployed its flagship A380 to Johannesburg, bringing the airline's world-class products and services to South Africa, and now offers two daily flights from Johannesburg on the double-decker aircraft.
Emirates offers two exclusive lounges in Johannesburg and Cape Town for customers travelling in First Class and Business Class, as well as Skywards members in selected membership tiers. The airline also offers a chauffeur drive service for all three gateways.
Emirates currently operates a global network of over 140 destinations, optimising schedules to key destinations including Dubai, Thailand and India as well as European hotspots such as the UK, France, the Netherlands and Germany.
