DUBAI - Emirates, the Dubai based airline announced the start of a second five times weekly service to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, starting from 26th October, in addition to the current daily service.

On 28th October 1997, Emirates started a twice weekly service between Dubai and Dar es Salaam connecting with Nairobi with an Airbus A310-300 aircraft.  In 2006, the frequency and capacity was increased with a daily non-stop service between Dubai and Dar es Salaam but without the Nairobi sector.

The newly announced flight service will be operated with an Emirates Airbus A330-200 aircraft, in a three class configuration with 12 seats in first class, 42 in business class and 183 in economy class, adding a total of 2,370 seats and up to 170 tons of cargo capacity a week on the route.

Orhan Abbas, Emirates senior vice-president, commercial operations, Latin America, Central and Southern Africa, said: “Dar es Salaam is an important destination in our east African network.

"In our last financial year we carried over 180,000 customers on the route, and we are expecting further growth with the introduction of the second service, which will offer our customers more choice and convenience from Tanzania to Dubai and onward to Europe, the Middle East, the United States, India and the Far East. Dar es Salaam will now become the second destination in east Africa, after Nairobi, to have more than a daily frequency." 

According to the Dubai based aniline, 75 percent of the cargo exported from Tanzania are perishables good, the remainder exports are household goods, jewelry, dry foods and automotive spare parts. While major imports are pharmaceuticals, automotive spare parts, electrical and electronic products and construction equipment and machinery.  

The new service will operate on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. It will depart Dubai as EK727 at 16:55hrs and arrive in Dar es Salaam at 21:50hrs. The return flight EK728 will depart Dar es Salaam at 23:30hrs and arrive in Dubai at 06:20hrs the next day.