Emirates to raise Dublin flight capacity

Emirates will deploy a larger aircraft on its Dublin route from July 1, the carrier said yesterday in a statement issued just three weeks after the launch of its services to the Irish capital. The daily Dubai-Dublin service, currently operated with a 237-seat Airbus A330-200, will be replaced by a 360-seat Boeing 777-300ER. The move is an increase in capacity by 52 per cent. The move is prompted by high demand on the route, which was launched on January 9, with load factors driving through 90 per cent for many of the flights. Most successful Article continues below Emirates said the Dubai-Dublin service has already become one of the airline's most successful route launches. "Normally, this would provide enough capacity for the first 2-3 years of a new route operation. However, Dublin is exceeding our expectations much faster than was predicted and we need more seats to satisfy demand," Salem Obaidalla, Emirates Senior Vice-President of Commercial Operations, Europe and Russian Federation, said in a statement. He added that a bigger aircraft also means more "good news for the Irish economy".