All Things Travel: Emirates Airline Opens Up Middle East With New Flights From Boston
BOSTON - (CBS) – One of the world's fastest growing airlines will start new daily flights to the Middle East on March 10.
In a major coup for Logan Airport and business travelers, Emirates Airline has selected Boston for its latest U.S. expansion. The carrier has a reputation for excellent service and business travelers will be able to fly to Dubai and transfer to flights to Africa and Asia.
Emirates has begun hiring staff for the Logan Airport start-up and also made news last week as a major part of three Middle Eastern airlines that purchased $95 billion new Boeing 777X jets. Delivery is scheduled to begin in 2020.
At the Dubai Air Show, Emirates announced that it had placed orders for 150 of the new Boeing jets that will carry about 350 passengers. The plane will also save 12 percent in fuel costs, compared to jets now flying.
According to the Emirates web site, production of the new Boeing 777X will support 400,000 U.S. jobs. Aircraft sales are the number one export of this country.
Emirates also said that it would buy 50 more Airbus A380 aircraft.
The web site also said that Middle Eastern airlines would need 40,000 new pilots in the next 20 years as their business grows.
Emirates also announced last week its financial results for the first half of the year. Revenue increased 13 percent to $11.5 billion with a four percent increase in profits to $600 million. It carried 21.5 million passengers, up 6.5 percent in the same period.
The announcement of the new Emirates Airline service came at the same time as Turkish Airlines would begin new flights to Istanbul from Boston later next spring. Now on a winning streak for new airline service to the Middle East, Massport is expected to land non-stop flights to China in the very near future.
Logan Airport will handle record passenger traffic this year with over 30 million people choosing Boston as their destination. International travelers account for about 10 percent of that figure.
Bob Weiss reports on travel for WBZ News Radio.
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