DUBAI: Emirates announced that it plans to launch a second daily service from Dubai International Airport (DXB) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Friday 1st July 2016. 

The second Los Angeles flight will be operated with an Emirates’ Airbus A380-800ULR aircraft in a 3-class configuration with 14 private suites in First class, 76 seats in Business class and 401 seats in Economy class. 

The new service, flight EK217, will depart Dubai at 3:00 p.m. and arrive in Los Angeles at 8:00 p.m.

The return flight, EK218, will depart Los Angeles at 10:30 p.m. and arrive in Dubai approximately 16 hours later at 1:30 a.m.  

The new service will supplement the current EK215 Airbus A380-800 flight departing Dubai at 8:55 a.m. and landing in Los Angeles at 1:55 p.m.

The existing return flight, EK216, departs LAX 4:45 p.m. and arrives in Dubai 7:35 p.m. the following day.

The complementary flight times of Emirates’ new 2nd daily service will serve the growing customer demand for travel between Dubai and the western US, as well as for those passengers connecting to Emirates’ vast global network of onwards destinations. 

“Our existing service provides USD $677 million in annual economic benefit to L.A. and the surrounding area, contributes over $270 million in annual spending by visitors, and helps to support nearly 6,000 US jobs,” said Hubert Frach, Emirates divisional senior vice president, commercial operations, West. 

“So our additional service to LAX not only doubles our capacity to meet demand for our award winning service, but also increases our positive economic impact to the Los Angeles area.”

A major export from Los Angeles is fruits and vegetables and these account for the largest portion of Emirates’ cargo exports out of Los Angeles, transported both in the belly hold of the airline’s wide body A380 aircraft as well as through two Emirates Boeing 777-200F freighters each week.

The vast majority of exports from are transported to Dubai and Kuwait. Emirates also facilitates transport of garments, automobiles, machinery, and agricultural cargo to the Middle East, as well as medical equipment to Mumbai.

“Our new flight will create more choices and shorter connection times for many passengers traveling via Dubai and onwards to Los Angeles and surrounding areas,” continued Frach.

“Passengers wishing to travel beyond Los Angeles to nearby destinations in the US can take advantage of our partnerships with Virgin America and Alaska Airlines. For example, through Alaska Airlines, passengers can connect from LAX to cities such as Medford, Mammoth Lakes, Monterey, Portland, and Santa Rosa.” 

Passengers traveling to Los Angeles via Dubai from several cities such as Basra, Tehran, Kuwait, Dhaka, Karachi, Sialkot, Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi, Colombo, and Seychelles as well as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok will experience improved connectivity.

Passengers traveling from Los Angeles via Dubai to Lahore, Peshawar, Mumbai, Chennai, Trivandrum, Ahmedabad, Colombo, Cape Town and Mauritius, as well as Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong will also experience more choices and shorter connection times.

The new return flight, EK218, that will depart Los Angeles at 10:30 p.m. for Dubai provides several opportunities for business and leisure travelers.

This later departure time will provide business travelers with a full day in Los Angeles before returning to Dubai in the evening. Leisure travelers will also appreciate the full day they have in Los Angeles for sightseeing, shopping, or visiting friends and relatives, before returning to Dubai.

Emirates passengers looking to explore even more of the Americas now have dozens of options with the Americas Pass.

With one combined ticket, travelers flying to any of Emirates’ 10 US destinations can connect to more than 90 cities across America, Canada and Latin America through Emirates’ five partner airlines: Jet Blue, Alaska Airlines, Virgin America, WestJet Airlines and Porter Airlines.