Exclusive:Emirates to relaunch Edinburgh to Dubai daily flights using new A350 planes

Major air carrier Emirates will relaunch daily flights between Edinburgh and Dubai in a major coup for Scotland’s busiest airport.

The route will reopen in November, with passengers to be carried on Emirates’ new Airbus A350-900 aircraft.

Flights will restart from Edinburgh Airport from November 4, the airline has confirmed.

Emirates is relaunching its Edinburgh to Dubai route, which will be served by A380 planes. Picture: Emirates

The relaunch of the route comes after flights were originally suspended in the midst of the Covid pandemic in 2020.

The Middle Eastern airline already flies to the United Arab Emirates from Glasgow, but the return to Edinburgh will add further competition. Qatar Airways already flies from Edinburgh Airport to Doha four times a week.

Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh Airport, said: "We are thrilled to welcome Emirates back to Scotland’s capital and busiest airport. The resumption of daily flights between Edinburgh and Dubai is a huge show of confidence in our market and reaffirms our status as Scotland’s gateway to the world.

“Emirates is one of the world's leading airlines and its return is great news for our passengers, providing direct access to Dubai and opening up fantastic connectivity to other parts of the world. We look forward to welcoming our partners at Emirates back to the airport in November and working together on the success of this important route."

Emirates had originally launched a year-round service from Edinburgh to Dubai in 2018 before the pandemic halted the service two years later.

Marc Crothall, chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, hailed the launch of the route at the time as “great news for Scottish tourism”.

Edinburgh is among nine destinations announced by Emirates to be served by its A350 aircraft, which will start flying from September.

The inaugural destination for Emirates’ first-ever Airbus A350 will be between Dubai and Bahrain on September 15. But other routes will include four daily flights between Dubai and Kuwait City from September 16, and longer regional flights to Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Flights between Dubai and Bologna, as well as to Lyon, will be launched in December.

The airline will use the A350s, which have a maximum range of 9,500 nautical miles and do not feature first class cabins, as a regional workhorse across Europe, the Middle East and West Asia. Emirates has ordered a total of 65 A350s for its overall fleet.

Each of the planes boasts three cabin classes, with 32 business class seats, 21 seats in premium economy, and 259 economy class seats.

Adnan Kazim, deputy president and chief commercial officer of Emirates Airline, said: “The A350 will be a game-changer for Emirates, enabling us to serve regional points with superior operating efficiency and flexibility across the Middle East and GCC, West Asia and Europe.

"With the latest generation cabin products including more of our sought-after premium economy to more cities, top-notch in-flight entertainment technologies and an abundance of other customer-friendly features, the Emirates A350 builds on our long-standing commitment of investing in the very best customer experience in the sky.

"Flying the A350 to nine cities in such a short span of time adds more premium cabin options and choice across geographies for our customers.”