Bangalore joins Emirates network

Bangalore, Oct 30 (UNI) Making Emirates fifth footprint in South India and its eighth such entry into Indian skies, the airlines first flight an Airbus Aircraft captained by native Bangalorean Santhosh Menezes, touched down at the Airport here yesterday.

Emirates, which entered the Indian skies two decades ago, was currently on an expansion drive in the country, having commenced services to Thiruvananthapuram and Kolkata and added capacity to its Cochin, Chennai and Delhi routes earlier this year.

The Dubai based airlines operated 71 flight a week to various destinations of the country, next only to Britain with 91 flights a week.

Speaking to newsmen on the occasion, Senior Vice President Commercial Operations West Asia and Indian Ocean Nabil Sultan said the service heralded the start of a eight flight a week to Bangalore and the airlines offered over 2000 passenger seats and 120 tons of cargo capacity on the route.

The airlines was conteplating to introduce flights to more number of destinations across India and increase capacity on various existing routes in the next two years, he revealed adding that India was considered a potential market for the airlines.

Answering a question he said the airline had simplified visa procedures for passengers visiting or transiting through Dubai by launching the Dubai Visa Processing Centre.

Travellers flying on Emirates from Bangalore to Dubai or points beyond that could obtain a visit visa (59 days), Transit Visa (96 days) with Emirates as their sponsor through the centre. This significantly reduced the visa processing time as travellers were no longer required to locate a United Arab Emirates based sponsor, he explained.

In celebration of the start of its flights, the airlines launched its celebratory Bangalore-Dubai-Bangalore stopover deals. Between October 29 and February 28, first, business and economy class passengers would receive a complimentary three, two and one night stay respectively at the Traders Hotel in Dubai, courtesy Emirates, he announced.

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