Emirates has just announced that they’ll be launching daily flights between Athens and Newark as of March 26, 2017. The flightwill operate as a continuation of one of Emirates’ existing flights between Dubai and Athens, so the entire routing will look as follows:
Continue reading: WOW: Emirates Is Launching Daily Flights Between Newark And Athens
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Would have selfishly preferred PHL - would be nice to have a complement to Qatar here.
Caught me off guard as well but it's great to see another option other than United (or star alliance carriers) to fly to Europe for EWR based flyers.
Unfortunately for passengers in all classes of service, this will never be an A380 route since EWR can't accommodate the A380. Plus the whole "these planes are probably going to be empty" thing.
in the summer this flight will be full. In the winter it'll be empty. Fares will be great for consumers. yields will be horrible for EK.
Will trump ban Muslim countries from entering the United States, then all flights to us will be empty or cancelled,
I am THRILLED at the route, but have to agree w/ everyone else here...Profitability will be more then a challenge...UA can't make this work year round on a 767 or small 787-8 even with all their connections/feed...
I think this route will be a game changer for the large Greek community in Northern New Jersey. For years they would go to PHL or JFK and now a flight right from Newark.
Bummer already booked my trip to Greece in Iberia business with AA miles. Would have much preferred giving emirates first a try
UA and DL both operate EWR/JFK-ATH during the summer months only. There's a reason they pull ac off these routes in the winter - economic viability. Will be interested to see what EK is seeing during those off peak months...
Late arrival time in Newark is a deal breaker for me as a west coast passenger. I'd prefer to get home the same day and avoid the expense of a Newark hotel.
@Curtis Trump voters took Trump campaign comments 'seriously, but not literally'. It has already been clarified that no, there will be no "ban on muslim travel to the US". There will be "extreme vetting" of folks coming from areas of intense terrorist activity. Which won't affect most airlines, since they don't have that many customers coming from Syria and Yemen. 😉
In winters when the traffic between US and Greece is low Emirates will be able to fill this flight as they would/could offer discounted fares to Newark on this flight for Pax originating in India as a 2 stop service. Since the fares on their JFK flights are considerably higher this could be a good option for Indian Pax if they could get a ticket to Newark at 20% lesser fare with 2 stops.
Also the connections to DTW and other such places Emirates routes it by default from Boston. They never offer on a single ticket through JFK again they could offer connections from EWR on this flight.
Serves QR right for never following through their announcement to operate to the US out of Athens when they started receiving their 787s!
Any insight on this impacting fares out of Athens on EK? Historically has been one of the cheapest starting points for EK First Class back to USA. However, checking fares from ATH via Dubai to USA post launch, seems like they have gone up by 2-3x times what I found as recent as two weeks ago.
This should be great for Qantas FF as redemption on EK flights is fairly good, I got EK from Sydney to Bangkok to Dubai and Barcelona and back in May and July this year in business. These new flights from Athens to the US will be great and a good way to get from Europe to the US on Qantas points.
Also it will be a great way to combine an around the world airfare on Qantas and Emirates as Australia, UAE, Greece, USA and back home to Australia.
Well he mentions the vast cargo space of the 777. The other carriers fly smaller planes. So that must be one of the major advantage of this route, year long.
These flights are going to be full. Sure, stop at ATH is going to add to travel time but it certainly beats having to drive to JFK for most pax based in Jersey and Philly metro area. (Time to travel to JFK is unpredictable due to traffic). Success of ME3 is US is partly supported by their ability to serve South Asian cities directly (for that crowd, ability to do customs in hometown and avoid a domestic leg is worth an hour or so extra that ATH minus JFK schlep is going to take. This is about why planes will be full. Profitability is a different calculation.