Emirates Adds Second Daily London Stansted Service Featuring New First-Class Suites
Emirates has on Tuesday announced it will commence a second daily Dubai (DXB) to London Stansted (STN) flight from July 1, 2019.
Best of all, this flight will be operated by a new Boeing 777-300ER featuring the airline's highly regarded new first-class suites, which TPG awarded the world's best first class product in 2018.
The airline currently operates the following daily flights, also with a Boeing 777-300ER featuring the new first-class suites:
- EK33 Dubai (DXB) 9:30am Departure ⇒ London (STN) 1:20pm Arrival
- EK34 London (STN) 8:15pm Departure ⇒ Dubai (DXB) 7:10am (+1) Arrival
From July 1, Emirates will switch up both flight numbers and times to operate the following flights, daily:
- EK65 Dubai (DXB) 9:00am Departure ⇒ London (STN) 1:30pm Arrival
- EK66 London (STN) 3:00pm Departure ⇒ Dubai (DXB) 1:05am (+1) Arrival
- EK67 Dubai (DXB) 1:15pm Departure ⇒ London (STN) 6:45pm Arrival
- EK68 London (STN) 9:10pm Departure ⇒ Dubai (DXB) 7:10am (+1) Arrival
While the new flights are now on sale, unfortunately there is no first-class award availability showing in advance, which is the same situation for each flight featuring the new product. The good news is that Emirates is now releasing last minute first class awards for this product.
These aircraft also feature a fully flat business class seat cabin, which is an improvement over the angled flat seating most of the airlines 777's feature, however the downside of this seat is that many seats do not have direct aisle access as its still a disappointing 2-3-2 configuration.
London Stansted represents the only destination to so far receive a double daily Emirates service featuring the new first-class product, given Emirates only has a handful of planes with the product installed. Geneva, Brussels and Vienna have single daily frequencies.
Emirates original announcement that it would commence flights to Stansted back last year was met with some surprise, given the airport is almost exclusively used by short-haul low-cost carriers, primarily as Ryanair's largest global base. But the route has performed sufficiently well that Emirates has decided to double the capacity, with its best first-class product.
Stansted has only a single airport lounge for the entire airport, the Escape Lounge, which is accessible with a Priority Pass membership.
Emirates has arranged to section off a large part of the lounge for its existing evening departure, which leave after the majority of flights for the day. The new EK66 departure should mean lounge space will limited during the early afternoon as Priority Pass members may be turned away.
Emirates will offer a massive 11 daily services to London, with six Airbus A380 flights to London Heathrow (LHR) and three A380 flights to London Gatwick (LGW) in addition to these two Stansted frequencies.
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