Emirates adds 17 new routes to Asia/Pacific region

(AFP/Robyn Beck)

On November 4 Dubai-based Emirates airlines announced a significant enlargement to the Asia/Pacific flight plan with the addition of 17 new flights.

The new flights, some daily and some weekly, will be added by January 2010, increasing the company's seat capacity in the region by 13 percent.

Some of the new routes include: a fourth daily service to Bangkok, a third daily service to Sydney, two more weekly flights to Manila and one additional weekly route to Jakarta.

Emirates added service to Luanda, Angola last week, the airline's 18th destination in Africa.

In 2008, Emirates was the seventh-busiest international carrier and in 2009 was voted the fifth-best airline in the world by research consultancy firm Skytrax.

In the last year the Middle East is the only world region which has defied the international air travel recession by recording an 8 percent increase in passenger demand over the first 10 months of this year, according to the International Air Transport Association.