Emirates Airlines says it has restored its daily flight frequency from Accra to Dubai.

The airline has also announced a major retrofit programme to equip 120 aircraft (53_777s & 67_A380s) with the new Premium Economy seats and the latest cabin interiors.

This was revealed by the Country Manager, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, Catherine Wesley at a media round table in Accra on Monday, August 8, 2022.

The purpose of the meeting was to brief media personnel about the operations of the airline in Ghana and across the globe.

According to her, the retrofit programme “is a major draw for our customers and demand will continue to grow as we make more seats available on more routes.”

Ms. Wesley also disclosed that Emirates’ highly sought-after Premium Economy class cabin went on sale 1 June 2022. The airline also started operating to London Heathrow, Paris, and Sydney last week. “The demand and take-up has exceeded our expectations,” she said.

The Country Manager also hinted that Emirates will operate to 132 destinations by December 2022 with 85 A380s.

Touching on how the airline intends to bounce back following the easing of restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Wesley said, “Today, Emirates is deploying more than 1.1 million seats network-wide per week, in line with surging demand for international travel. That represents more than 70% of our pre-pandemic capacity. Emirates operates 2,475 network wide weekly departures. That’s close to 170 passenger departures from Dubai per day. We’re focusing on bringing back the rest of our network based on easing of restrictions in certain countries, and other operational factors. We’ve recovered more than 90% of our network.”

In Africa, Ms. Wesley spoke about the restoration of its full pre-pandemic passenger network, “Our African network currently stands at 21 destinations, and today we operate over 140 weekly flights into the continent. We have redeployed our A380 into Cairo and Johannesburg with multiple daily services and with the easing of travel restrictions, and the acceleration of passenger demand, we’re advancing our plans to expand our presence across Africa even further.”

To keep up with air-freight demand, “We acquired 2 new Boeing 777 freighters this year helping to augment our capacity,” Ms. Wesley announced.