Emirates' UK passenger numbers exceed 200,000 in July

Emirates has reported its busiest July on record in the UK, with 208,000 passengers departing from its six UK gateways: Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow.
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Above: An Emirates A380 taking off from Manchester Airport.

Passenger numbers were highest in London with 40,600 and 73,500 people flying out of Gatwick and Heathrow respectively. This strong performance was reflected across its regional gateways, with nearly 94,000 passengers departing on Emirates flights from airports outside of the capital. The most popular destinations from the UK were: Dubai, Australia, Thailand, Mauritius and Singapore.

July saw the largest number of passengers recorded in any single month for Gatwick, Newcastle (11,700) and Birmingham (26,000). 18,200 passengers flew from Glasgow last month, whilst Manchester saw its highest July figures on record at 38,000.

A contributing factor to Emirates’ record passenger numbers in July, is an increase in its UK capacity. Earlier this year, Emirates replaced two Boeing 777s, which operated daily services from Gatwick and Manchester, with the world-class Airbus A380, increasing capacity by 11.5% across its UK network.

Laurie Berryman, Emirates Vice President, UK, commented: “Summer is always a busy time for us, but the significant boost to our UK capacity means we’ve been able to fly more passengers than ever before. Our performance in July is a clear reflection of the growing demand for international travel across the country and it’s particularly encouraging to see traffic levels increase across our regional gateways as travellers become less dependent on the London hubs.

“People choose to fly with Emirates because of our exceptional customer experience before, during and after a flight and they love the flagship Emirates A380 experience. With recent upgrades and additional services, there are now more opportunities to fly on this impressive aircraft than ever before.”

Further to the two Airbus A380s introduced in 2015, Emirates launched a third daily service to Birmingham on 1st August, operated by a Boeing 777. From 1st January 2016, a third daily Airbus A380 service will operate from Gatwick, replacing a Boeing 777, which will mean all eight daily London flights will be operated by the A380 superjumbo.