Update: Emirates canceled its Dubai to Newark flight in 2020.
Emirates has announced some adjustments to their US service. Most significantly, Emirates has announced that they’ll be launching daily nonstop flights between Newark and Dubai as of June 1, 2018.
The new flight will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, featuring eight first class suites (not Emirates’ new first class), 42 business class seats, and 306 economy seats. The flight will cover a distance of 6,860 miles, and is blocked at 14hr westbound an 12hr30min eastbound.
The flight will operate with the following schedule:
EK223 Dubai to Newark departing 3:00AM arriving 9:00AM
EK224 Newark to Dubai departing 11:50AM arriving 8:20AM (+1 day)
This complements Emirates’ existing daily flight from Newark to Dubai via Athens in both directions, which they launched in March 2017. That flight is operated by an identically configured 777-300ER, and has the following schedule:
EK209 Dubai to Athens departing 10:50AM arriving 3:00PM
EK209 Athens to Newark departing 5:20PM arriving 9:20PM
EK210 Newark to Athens departing 11:55PM arriving 4:05PM (+1 day)
EK210 Athens to Dubai departing 6:05PM arriving 11:35PM
The new daily flight between Dubai and Newark is coming at the expense of one of Emirates’ daily flights between Dubai and New York JFK. From March 25, 2018, Emirates will stop operating EK207/208, meaning that they’re reducing the number of daily flights between Dubai and JFK from four daily to three daily.
This also represents a net capacity decrease, since the JFK flight was operated by an A380, while the Newark flight will be operated by a 777.
Emirates A380
Emirates points out that the Newark flight will offer travelers in northern New Jersey enhanced global connectivity, and notes that nearly 700,000 Indian Americans reside in the greater New York area, and will have one-stop access to nine cities in India.
Emirates also notes that as of March 25, 2018, the airline will be restoring daily flights to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. Emirates operated these routes daily until early 2017, but then reduced frequencies due to decreased demand resulting from the electronics ban. So the airline is going to once again operate these flights daily, rather than the 5x weekly service we’ve seen for nearly a year.
Bottom line
Overall these seem like smart capacity adjustments on Emirates’ part. Many people view Newark as a separate market from JFK, so assuming the demand isn’t there for four daily A380s to JFK, they might as well shift some capacity to Newark, to complement their existing flight to Athens. This does represent an overall capacity decrease to the NYC area.
Anyone plan to take Emirates’ new nonstop flight between Newark and Dubai?
You cannot call it a non-stop flight to Dubai when you deplane in Athens. Gate B63 departure from Newark has no lounge access. There is a SAS and Lufthansa, and neither honor Priority Pass nor Centurion access. They may have honored an Emirates Business class ticket, but I was flying economy. Athens is a small airport with no amenities unless you call having a Starbucks a perk. Athens ground staff are local with ZERO boarding...
You cannot call it a non-stop flight to Dubai when you deplane in Athens. Gate B63 departure from Newark has no lounge access. There is a SAS and Lufthansa, and neither honor Priority Pass nor Centurion access. They may have honored an Emirates Business class ticket, but I was flying economy. Athens is a small airport with no amenities unless you call having a Starbucks a perk. Athens ground staff are local with ZERO boarding control. Emirates could not even announce the new departure gate for the final leg to Dubai when departing the plane in Athens, although it was only two gates down. Calling it a direct flight from Newark to Dubai is false advertising and an unpleasant experience.
Very glad about this, though it would have been nice to have the fully enclosed first class seats for such a long flight.
assuming this will significantly reduce nearly 200+ * $17/$12.5 on the tolls between NJ and NY per day easing traffic on the outer bridge crossing and verrazano bridge as well lol
The flight times are horrible in both directions. You better stay up for the entire flight to get your money's worth if you're in first-class.
Is the business-class on the 777 still the interior angled seats in a 2x3x2 configuration?
@ FNT Delta Diamond -- Yes, it is, though in fairness I find the angle to be pretty minimal, so it's one of the few angled products I can actually get comfortable in.
so excited for Emirates is coming to NJ- no was was I going to JFK to take them... NJ does have a HUGE south asian population that will likely take this flight over Air India because of service and comfort...but they have to improve timings so there are better connections to cities in India. Right now it shows 14 hour layover to get to AMD...if that was the case I'd still do Air India -...
so excited for Emirates is coming to NJ- no was was I going to JFK to take them... NJ does have a HUGE south asian population that will likely take this flight over Air India because of service and comfort...but they have to improve timings so there are better connections to cities in India. Right now it shows 14 hour layover to get to AMD...if that was the case I'd still do Air India - the smartest thing AI did was how they set the timings for their flights from EWR.
As a Manhattan resident I'm indifferent between JFK and EWR, but this seems like a smart move given the high Indian/south Asian/Middle Eastern populations of NJ. Since Emirates isn't an alliance member I don't really see the downside of diversifying within the greater NYC area.
14 hours in 3-4-3 77W 17 inch economy? No thanks. At least it’s much, much better than spending the same time in United Economy. I would be willing to fly this route if it was free, but there’s no way I’m going to sit in United’s 777-300ER 31/17 seats with their miserable recline and dreadful service even if I was paid to do it.
From what I recall, EWR airport can't accomodate A380s anyway so EK had no choice other than to fly the 777.
Nowadays I view EWR as the star alliance airport mainly due to the large presence of UA there (and lack of UA presence in JFK.)
If EK ever offers the new F on this route, I'd definitely fly DXB-EWR then! :)
The reason they ramp up EWR is because with this new plan for reorganization of Air India, there is a good chance that there will be some sort of temporary service suspension or break in long haul svcs as AI changes their AOCs. So Emirates is positioning themselves for both EWR and JFK ops in the case that Air India's nonstops become iffy and pax want options without having to cross state lines
A red eye to Athens then on to Dubai where you arrive at both in the evening also sounds miserable. Maybe re time that flight a bit?
Lucky,
I saw this press release on the Emirates page regarding new baggage screening rules that involve bags being opened and inspected. It doesn't say if this applies only to passengers checking in at Dubai or if it includes those transiting Dubai as well.
https://www.emirates.com/english/help/travel-updates.aspx#/#3352
People I know who have traveled to the Indian subcontinent from the US (having checked in unlocked suitcases to be TSA-compliant) have complained about items missing from their luggage upon...
Lucky,
I saw this press release on the Emirates page regarding new baggage screening rules that involve bags being opened and inspected. It doesn't say if this applies only to passengers checking in at Dubai or if it includes those transiting Dubai as well.
https://www.emirates.com/english/help/travel-updates.aspx#/#3352
People I know who have traveled to the Indian subcontinent from the US (having checked in unlocked suitcases to be TSA-compliant) have complained about items missing from their luggage upon arrival in India.
Smart move. As someone who lives in the Philly area, I'll consider EWR (1:30 away) but not JFK (2:30+).