One of the fringe benefits of life as an expat in the United Arab Emirates is the easy opportunity to travel and explore. The Emirates is one of the most connected countries in the world. From Dubai airport alone, it is possible to fly nonstop to 240 destinations on six continents.
Over the last few years, we have grown to expect the continuous
This year however new destinations from either Dubai or Abu Dhabi will be a little thin on the ground. There are two major reasons for this.
The southern runway at Dubai airport will close from 16 April till 30 May 2019 for essential repairs. Dubai airport, one of the busiest in the world, will operate with just a single runway over this period.
Emirates is cutting the number of flights it operates by 25% and parking up to 48 aircraft during the 45-day runway closure. That does not leave any spare capacity for new destinations in the first half of the year.
Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi, Etihad Airways is on a determined drive to cut costs and improve profitability. This has included culling underperforming routes. Over the last year, Etihad has suspended flights to Dallas, Dar es Salaam, Dhaka, Edinburgh, Entebbe, Ho Chi Minh City, Perth and Tehran.
New to Napoli
In 2019 the responsibility to launch new connections will fall largely to the UAE’s low-cost carriers.
The flight schedule is also ideal for a quick 3-4 day weekend away. Flights will operate on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturdays. The Friday flight is scheduled to start from 28 June 2019.
27 June 2019 1 October 2019. The launch of the new Budapest route has been delayed due to the continued grounding of the airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. These two destinations are both served from the UAE by Etihad and Emirates respectively.
Air Arabia will start flights from Sharjah to Belgrade from 28 June 2019. Etihad currently flies to Belgrade from Abu Dhabi.
Maybe Mexico City in 2019?
There is one potential new destination under consideration that would be groundbreaking. While no launch date has been announced yet, it appears Emirates is inching towards launching flights to Mexico City via Barcelona. This would be Emirates first destination in Central America.
It was reported in December that Emirates has received permission from the Mexican government to fly daily between Mexico City and Barcelona. The stop in Barcelona is necessary due to the elevation of Mexico City airport. The maximum take-off weight at Mexico City means is not possible to fly direct to Dubai with any of the current aircraft in the Emirates fleet.
The road back to Damascus
It is possible that at least one or more Emirati carriers will recommence flights to Damascus during 2019. As it stands, airlines from the Emirates are banned from operating in Syrian airspace.
It was reported earlier this month that the General Civil Aviation Authority is considering the return of UAE airlines to Syria and assessing the safety of Damascus airport. This follows the re-opening of the United Arab Emirates’ Embassy in Damascus last month.
Syria attracted up to 8 million tourists per year prior to the conflict. Rebuilding the tourism industry is likely to play a big party in the country’s reconstruction.
Holding out hope for the second half
The list of confirmed new destinations is pretty meagre compared to what we have grown accustomed to. Mexico City would be an exciting new route if it does eventually launch. Hopefully, the second half of 2019 will prove more abundant.
UPDATE
flydubai will launch flights to Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan from 11 March 2019. Emirates will launch a new route from Dubai to Porto on 2 July 2019.