Emirates revealed an update over its summer schedule 2021. The airline plans to operate over 280 weekly flights from its home base in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, to various destinations in Europe, the United States, Middle East, Africa, and other popular island getaways starting from July 2021.
The flag carrier of UAE revealed that following eased restrictions for air travel to Spain, from June 7, 2021, Emirates will restart operations to the country. The airline plans to operate 5 weekly flights to Madrid (MAD) as well as 4 weekly flights to Barcelona (BCN). The air carrier outlined that depending on the demand, it would add additional flights on these two particular routes.
Spain became the 19th country across the Emirates network that has opened its doors for leisure and business air travel. However, the airline informed its customers that they would be able to enter the destination only if they have been fully vaccinated at least 14 days before the date of travel or present their negative COVID-19 PCR tests taken 48 hours prior to arrival to the destination.
“Travelers will need to physically provide their vaccination certificates upon arrival and must have received vaccines authorized by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), or one of the vaccines included in the WHO’s Emergency Use Listing, including the Pfizer BioNTech, Sinopharm and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines. Unvaccinated children under the age of six will be allowed entry together with their vaccinated parents. Children over the age of six must present a negative PCR test. International passengers must also complete the Health Control Form (FCS) online prior to arrival,” the airline pointed out in the statement.
As for a remaining part of the summer schedule, from June 9, 2021, Emirates will offer quarantine-free European routes to Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Spain, and France. Meanwhile, the airline is already offering flights to the Middle East destinations, including Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, and Egypt as well as African routes, such as Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco.
From July 2, 2021, the airline will start operating more exotic routes including the Maldives, Seychelles, and Phuket as well as Mexico City. Emirates also revealed that since the United States has also been seen as an increasingly popular destination for travelers, it will expand its US network by adding Miami as its 12th route starting from July 21, 2021.
On June 1, 2021, Emirates officially returned its Airbus A380 widebody to its New York route over a year of absence and hinted that some other US gateways, such as Los Angeles, will also be serviced by the A380 jet.