Emirates and Garuda Indonesia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a codeshare partnership between both airlines. The new partnership allows Emirates and Garuda to offer connections on new routes across the Americas, Middle East, Africa and Europe. In addition to expanding the breadth of each airline’s networks, with travel made possible on a single ticket, Emirates and Garuda Indonesia will also explore opportunities to cooperate on their respective frequent flyer programmes, to enable customers of both airlines to earn and redeem loyalty points for reward tickets, upgrades and other exclusive benefits.
Subject to required regulatory approvals, the codeshare agreement is expected to come into effect from January 2022, with customer benefits to include seamless booking, ticketing, one baggage policy and check-through to the final destination in addition to travel benefits across 18 routes on both airlines’ networks.
Adnan Kazim, Chief Commercial Officer, Emirates said: “We are pleased to forge a codeshare partnership with Garuda Indonesia to provide our customers with access to additional destinations in Indonesia and which also allows them to enjoy seamless and convenient connectivity to eight domestic destinations to and from Dubai and to our global network through Jakarta, and three destinations through Denpasar. Indonesia is an important market for Emirates and our partnership with Garuda Indonesia is testament to Emirates’ commitment to continuously strengthen our network, and complement our offering. Through the expanded, combined network of both airlines, we are able to offer our customers a more seamless experience through check-in, bag check and boarding on every leg of their journey, all with a single ticket. We look forward to working with Garuda Indonesia and nurturing the relationship to bring more valuable benefits to our customers and their travel experience.”
Irfan Setiaputra, president and CEO, Garuda Indonesia said: “We are delighted to announce our partnership with Emirates that gives their inbound passengers seamless access to top travel destinations in Indonesia connected by Garuda’s domestic network. Outbound Garuda passengers will also benefit from this partnership as it gives them access to a wider range of destinations served by Emirates. This partnership is timely as countries are expected to start to reopen their borders for international flights and ease their travel restrictions. It will also help open up many opportunities for Indonesia’s trade and tourism activities,” he added.
Under the codeshare agreement, Emirates customers will be able to connect to and from Denpasar (DPS), Surabaya (SUB), Makassar (UPG), Balikpapan (BPN), Manado (MDC), Medan (MES), Padang (PDG) and Solo (SOC) airports on flights operated by Garuda Indonesia from Jakarta (CGK), to Dubai and beyond with a single ticket. Additionally, routes directly connecting Denpasar (DPS) with Surabaya (SUB) and Makassar (UPG), will be available. Garuda Indonesia will also add their marketing code to flights on eight routes, operated by Emirates, including between Dubai and Jakarta (CGK), Denpasar (DPS), Bahrain (BAH), Moscow (DME), Johannesburg (JNB), Cairo (CAI) London (LHR) and Manchester (MAN).
Emirates launches new flights to Israel
Emirates announced it will launch a daily non-stop flight between Dubai and Tel Aviv, Israel, starting 6 December. The move comes as the UAE and Israel continue to develop greater economic cooperation to drive growth across a range of sectors, in addition to boosting trade flows between both nations. With the new daily flights, Israeli travellers will be able to connect to Dubai, and through Dubai to Emirates’ global route network of over 120 destinations. The flight timings to/from Tel Aviv will offer travellers convenient access to major leisure destinations beyond Dubai like Thailand, the Indian Ocean Islands and South Africa, among others.
The new flights introduce convenient inbound connections to Tel Aviv from close to 30 Emirates gateways across Australia, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, India and South Africa, all home to some of the largest Jewish communities in the world. Travellers from the United States looking to stop in Dubai before embarking on their onwards journey to Tel Aviv can avail the Dubai Stop Over package, which includes stays at world-class hotels, sightseeing, and other activities.
The airline will deploy its modern Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in a three class configuration, offering private suites in First Class, lie flat seats in Business Class and spacious seats in Economy Class to serve customers on the route between Dubai and Tel Aviv. Daily flights are scheduled to depart Dubai as EK931 at 14:50hrs, arriving at Ben Gurion Airport at 16:25hrs local time. The return flight EK 932 will depart Tel Aviv at 18:25hrs, arriving in Dubai at 23:25hrs local time.