United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier, Emirates Airline has announced that it will offer a twice daily flight to the African city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s principal port and commercial city. The new schedule will take effect from January 1, 2015 and will see weekly flights to and from its Dubai International Airport hub rise from 12 to 14 a week, a capacity growth of 12.7 per cent in each direction.
Emirates first introduced flights to Dar es Salaam in conjunction with its services to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. However, in March 2006 the airline initially split the route and introduced its first non-stop flights to the Tanzanian city, later establishing a dedicated daily flight to the destination from December 2006. This was initially operated by an Airbus A330-200 but a larger Boeing 777-300ER was introduced from December 2009 and now permanently operates this flight.
To meet demand a second rotation was launched on October 27, 2015 on a five times weekly basis and it is this flight that is now being boosted to a daily frequency from the start of next year to facilitate the market growth. Dar es Salaam will now join Nairobi as the second destination in East Africa to be served by Emirates with a double daily frequency.
““Our move to a double daily for Dar es Salaam clearly shows the importance of Tanzania as a key tourism and business market, and we are optimistic that the additional flights will further boost inbound and outbound tourism and trade between the country, Dubai and our network”
Orhan Abbas
Vice President, Commercial Operations, Latin America, Central and Southern Africa, Emirates Airline
“Our move to a double daily for Dar es Salaam clearly shows the importance of Tanzania as a key tourism and business market, and we are optimistic that the additional flights will further boost inbound and outbound tourism and trade between the country, Dubai and our network, especially the US and Europe, as well as the Middle East, India and the Far East,” said Orhan Abbas, senior vice president, commercial operations, Latin America, Central and Southern Africa, Emirates Airline.
The second daily service is operated with an Emirates A330-200 in a three class configuration with 12 seats in First Class, 42 in Business Class and 183 in Economy Class. The two extra flights will provide an additional 948 seats into the market each week and will also increase the cargo capacity on the route by more than 65 tonnes, giving traders and business more opportunities to import and export products.
Our analysis of Sabre ADI data shows that Emirates recorded its highest annual loads on the route in 2013 with average occupancy reaching 75.0 per cent on the outbound flight from Dubai and 74.6 per cent on the return service from Tanzania. Data for the first nine months of 2014 show these figures have grown to 82.2 per cent and 81.0 per cent, respectively, and perhaps highlight the reasons for the airline’s frequency growth.
Our chart, below, highlights the ten largest origin and destination markets for passengers flying with Emirates to or from Dar es Salaam in the first nine months of this year. Local traffic accounts for 26.3 per cent of demand on the route and Dubai is the largest single O&D market followed by destinations across Europe, Asia and to North America.
Data provided by 
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