Emirates reinforces its commitment to Russia by announcing the upgrade of the aircraft servicing the St. Petersburg route to a Boeing 777-300ER, increasing capacity and offering an enhanced onboard experience.

Six weekly EK175/176 flights, from Dubai to St. Petersburg, will be operated with an Emirates Boeing 777-300ER from Oct. 25, instead of an Airbus 330-200. The up-gauge will be applied to a seventh flight per week on Dec. 1.

By replacing the A330-200 with the Boeing 777-300ER, Emirates will be adding a capacity increase of 50 percent to the route, which launched in November 2011. The new aircraft will also introduce the Emirates First Class Suite, a first for the route, plus 42 lie-flat Business Class seats and 310 spacious Economy Class seats.

As the only airline to offer First Class suites from St. Petersburg, Emirates is bringing a new level of comfort and quality to the market, previously unavailable from St Petersburg on a commercial airline.

“Since 2011, when Emirates launched flights to and from St. Petersburg, we have carried over 500,000 passengers on the route. Counting these figures alongside our double-daily flights to Moscow, takes the total to over 3.6 million passengers travelling on Emirates to and from Russia in the 12 years of operation, making it an important market not only for Emirates, but for Dubai as a destination,” said Thierry Aucoc, Emirates’ SVP, commercial operations, Europe and Russian Federation.

“Operating these flights to and from St. Petersburg on a 777-300ER brings consistency to the Russian customer. Whether traveling from St. Petersburg or Moscow, they will be confident that the level of experience they receive is in line with what is expected from Emirates.”