Emirates chief commercial officer Thierry Antinori on Monday said that he hopes the increased capacity of the Airbus A380 that the airline has just started flying between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Dubai helps tourism thrive on both sides.
The new 2-class A380 that Emirates began using on the route on Sunday has a capacity of 615 passengers, 44 percent more than the Boeing B77-300ER previously used, which could spur tourism and business between Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Antinori said in Taipei.
“Emirates’ service is bringing Taiwan closer to Europe, and we see good potential for the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries to visit Taiwan,” he said.
Emirates has carried 450,000 passengers on the Taoyuan-Dubai route since it was launched in 2014, about 60 percent of whom were Taiwanese and most of the rest European tourists who were transiting in Dubai, Antinori said.
The airline opened the route with a 3-class B777-300ER before replacing it with a 2-class configuration late last year to meet increasing demand.
The airline’s load factor fell to 54.9 percent in December last year, but rose to 62.8 percent in January, 68.2 percent in February and 72.6 percent in March.
Antinori said he expects outbound passenger growth from Taiwan of up to 20 percent and inbound passenger growth of 30 percent.
Inbound and outbound passengers should eventually even out on the Taoyuan-Dubai route, which now sees 85 percent of passengers use Dubai as a transit stop.
Through a closer partnership with the Tourism Bureau, which just sent a delegation to Dubai to work on tourism cooperation, Emirates could play an important role in connecting the two sides to create a demand, Antinori said.
“The product is already there, what we need is awareness,” said Jaber Mohamed, Emirates area manager in Taiwan.
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