Emirates has launched a codeshare partnership with Aegean Airlines that will enable passengers to benefit from increased connectivity to eight domestic Greek points via Athens (ATH).
The Gulf carrier will place its code on Aegean-operated flights to Alexandroupolis (AXD), Chania (CHQ), Corfu (CFU), Heraklion (HER), Mikonos (JMK), Rhodes (RHO), Santorini (JTR) and Thessaloniki (SKG).
Aegean will also place its code on Emirates-operated flights between Dubai (DXB) and Athens, which currently operate 12X-weekly using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
Starting in October, the two airlines plan to increase their joint codeshare network to include eight more European regional routes via Athens, including Belgrade (BEG), Bucharest (OTP) and Naples (NAP), as well as westwards on Emirates’ fifth freedom flights to New York Newark (EWR) from Athens, and to New York John F Kennedy (JFK) from Milan Malpensa (MXP).
The partnership with Aegean comes as the Dubai-based carrier has announced plans to launch A380 flights to Bengaluru (BLR) in south India for the first time and reintroduce Airbus A380 service to Perth (PER) as part of its ramp up of capacity to Australia.
From Oct. 30, Emirates will become the first airline to operate scheduled passenger services to BLR using the A380. Bengaluru will also be the second city in India to be served by the aircraft alongside Mumbai (BOM), which has received Emirates A380 flights since 2014.
The daily A380 DXB-BLR flights will complement the existing double-daily Emirates service between the destinations, operated using a mix of 777-200LR and 777-300ER aircraft.
From Dec. 1, the carrier also intends to resume daily A380 flights to Perth. The route from Dubai is served at the present time using 777-300ERs, offering 4,956 two-way weekly seats. The upgauge will increase weekly capacity to 6,846 seats.
“Emirates has seen a strong increase in passenger bookings to and from Australia with significant demand across all its cabins, particularly following the launch of its premium economy which was first introduced on one of its daily Sydney services on Aug. 1,” the carrier said in a statement.
According to the airline, the European summer has been the biggest driver of demand, with European cities making up eight of its top 10 destinations Australians are currently flying to. Topping the list is the UK followed by Italy, France, Greece and Ireland making up the top five. Spain, Lebanon, Germany, The Netherlands and Turkey round out the top 10 destinations.
Emirates started flying to Perth in August 2002 and has flown close to six million passengers to and from Dubai since then.
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