Emirates flight plans revealed: Airline back to 'new normal' by October 2020

Gatwick, Stansted and Glasgow will all get flights back

An Emirates A380 landing at London Heathrow airport (Getty)

Emirates plans to cut UK flights by about one-third from pre-coronavirus levels, its forward schedules reveal.

The route-analysis website Airlineroute is reporting that the Dubai-based airline will launch the bulk of its winter 2020-21 season on 1 October, with significant cuts to services.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Emirates had 11 flights a day between the London area and Dubai: six Airbus A380 jets from Heathrow, three flights from Gatwick and two departures from Stansted.

All three routes are set to continue, though Gatwick and Stansted flights are currently suspended.

From 1 October, Gatwick will be cut to a single daily Airbus A380 service, while Stansted will have a Boeing 777 – the other Emirates aircraft type.

Links from Heathrow are set to increase to five per day. Overall, the reduction in London flights is from 11 to eight daily – a 27 per cent cut in departures.

Outside the capital, Manchester services will reduce from three to two, with the Airbus A380 operating. Glasgow will also lose one of its daily flights, with the Superjumbo deployed on the single surviving service.

Many onward connections are also reduced or, in some cases, eliminated completely – such as Adelaide in South Australia.

Sydney will be served by two daily flights from Dubai, not three, while Johannesburg reduces from four to three and Bangkok from five to four.

For British travellers, the re-establishment of services is irrelevant, since UK visitors are not allowed in many countries.

Dubai is now open to tourists, though the Foreign Office warns against travel to the UAE.

Emirates’ rival, Qatar Airways, is to resume services from Edinburgh to Doha on 29 July, with three weekly services using a Boeing 787. It will fly from Heathrow three times daily, and operate two daily links from Manchester from 1 August.

Meanwhile British Airways is resuming services from Gatwick to Montego Bay in December. For many years, only Virgin Atlantic flew the route to the main Jamaican holiday airport.