Sister Cities Shanghai and Dubai are set to come even closer when Emirates launches its second daily service to Shanghai on February 1, 2008.

Emirates launched passenger services to Shanghai in April 2004 and the company says demand on the route began on a strong note and continued to grow steadily thereafter, with seat load factors consistently above 90 percent.

Emirates' Executive Vice President Commercial Operations Worldwide Ghaith Al Ghaith says, "Emirates' current daily service to Shanghai has been exceptionally successful and we are an airline of choice right across our customer spectrum – both passenger and trade. From Shanghai, we currently offer excellent connections to Africa and Europe; the route is served by state-of-the-art aircraft; and we offer culturally-sensitive services – from cabin crew who speak the language to Chinese food. And we intend to repeat our successful business model on the route."

Trade and tourism ties between China and Dubai have grown significantly stronger in the past few years. Since Emirates' launch to Shanghai, the number of Chinese hotel visitors in Dubai has more than doubled from 32,265 in 2004 to 68,504 in 2006. Trade ties are worth billions of dollars, and in 2006 China grabbed the top spot among Dubai's importing countries, nudging India to second place. Dubai imported US$7.6 billion worth of Chinese goods and exported in excess of US$134 million to China.

Emirates' second daily will be served by the airline's wide-bodied, plush Airbus A340-300 with 267 seats in a three-class configuration – 12 seats in First Class, 42 in Business and 213 in Economy – offering 13 tons of cargo capacity. On Tuesdays, the service will be operated by an Airbus A330-200, with 12 seats in First Class, 42 in Business and 183 in Economy.

The new service EK304 will provide passengers a convenient choice of timings, departing Dubai in the morning at 10:35 hours to reach Shanghai at 22:25 hours. The return flight EK305 departs Shanghai at 06:15 hours to reach Dubai at 12:50 hours.

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