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As Massachusetts looks to seek more international trade and investments, it welcomed the first daily non-stop flight between Dubai and Boston operated by Emirates Airlines. Incidentally, Boston’s Logan International Airport, where the first Emirates flight landed on Tuesday afternoon, has also been in talks with Air India and Jet Airways since 2006, which is about the same time that it opened talks with Emirates to begin operations here. Boston is the eighth US city to which Emirates now operates regular flights.
A senior Logan airport official told the Hindu Business Line that global airlines should not look at each other as competition but consider ways and means of expanding the market.
Addressing the media, Emirates President Tim Clark pointed out that passenger bookings for the new flight had been very strong, so much so the airline would consider operating a larger aircraft on the return service between Dubai and Boston. At the moment the airline operates a 266-seater Boeing aircraft on the route. He said the airline could look at operating the Airbus A380 within a year on this route because of the forward passenger bookings, market size and tie-up with JetBlue. The A380 can carry between 489 and 517 passengers on a single flight.
Betsy Wall, Executive Director, Office of Travel and Tourism, felt the start of the Emirates flight would help increase the number of Indians visiting Massachusetts, which currently stands at 50,000 annually. “Given the reach that Emirates has in India and the short connection time, we feel that Massachusetts will see a lot more Indians coming to visit their friends and relatives as there is a strong Indian community here,” she said.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick added that as the state looks to invite more international trade and investments, it has opened up to non-stop flights from different parts of the world, including Dublin, Madrid, Beijing, Tokyo, Istanbul and Beijing.
Emirates’ ties with the US have grown along two parallel tracks — expansion of routes to which the airline operates in the US from Dubai and a commitment to purchase US-made aircraft, including a November 2013 order to purchase 150 777X Boeing aircraft valued at $76 billion.
(This correspondent is in Boston at the invitation of Emirates Airlines.)
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