Emirates will increase services to Madinah to seven flights per week from October 31 underscoring the important economic and cultural ties between the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The airline remains committed to the kingdom with a total of 25 flights per week operating through its four gateways. These three new services will bring the number to 28 flights per week as well as increasing additional capacity to the kingdom by 15 percent.

“Saudi Arabia is an important market for Emirates and our new daily service to Al Medinah al Munawarah is key to our continued growth there. In the last two years we have increased operations to the Kingdom from 17 to 25 weekly flights and we will continue to work closely with the Saudi Authorities to implement additional services,” said Ahmed Khoory, Emirates’ senior vice president commercial operations, Gulf, Middle East and Iran.

Khoory continued: “This daily service will offer our customers in the Kingdom with even more choice, helping to connect both business and leisure travellers not only to Dubai but also our extensive worldwide network. There is significant demand for travel in and out of Al Medinah al Munawarah from across our network and we are confident that these new flights will be well received by our customers.”

Emirates’ first flight to Madinah landed on July 2, 2010. The service remains on a temporary schedule until March 26, 2011.

From October 31, the seven weekly flights to Madinah will depart Dubai each day at 0115 hours and will arrive in Madinah at 0315 hours. On the return journey the flight will depart Madinah at 0445 hours, arriving in Dubai at 0815 hours. Emirates currently has four scheduled flights to the city departing on a Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The service is operated by an Airbus A330-200 aircraft, offering 12 seats in First class, 42 seats in Business Class and 183 seats in Economy. - TradeArabia News Service