Australia confirmed as Emirates’ number one destination from Newcastle, UK

Australia has emerged as the favourite long-haul destination for the North-East of England’s business and leisure travellers, with more than 2,000 customers booked to fly from the region in the first four months of Emirates’ new service from Newcastle, UK.

With the first two flights from Newcastle already sold out in record time, the majority of travellers are looking beyond Emirates’ home base of Dubai as their final destination.

The launch of the route on September 1 has meant that for the first time destinations like Australia can be reached from the North East with just one stop – in Dubai – instead of lengthy journeys with multiple transfers via London or European hubs like Amsterdam or Paris.

Connections from all major capital cities in Australia to Newcastle are also good with stopovers in Dubai of no more than 2 hours.

Stephen Pearse, Vice President Commercial, Emirates Australia said: “It’s great to see Emirates boosting tourism to Australia from England’s North East, a region that has traditionally found it too time consuming to come to Australia as they have to fly into other destinations in the UK or Europe for connections.”

“Likewise, Australians are embracing the new route to Newcastle with promising sales to the region, particularly from Western Australia.”  “At Emirates we pride ourselves on giving Australians the best connections and options when flying into the UK and Europe, with 22 destinations now available for business and leisure travellers.”

The extra convenience means that Australia has now overtaken Thailand as the North-East of England’s favourite long haul destination.

A survey of Emirates forward bookings reveals the top 10 destinations for the Newcastle route are:

1. Australia
2. Thailand
3. Dubai
4. China
5. South Africa
6. India
7. New Zealand
8. Hong Kong
9. Pakistan
10. Bangladesh.

Of the four Australian cities served by Emirates, Perth is the favourite for the North East, followed by Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

Mr Laurie Berryman, Emirates Manager, UK North said: “Our indifferent summer has also intensified the search for winter sun, as we are also selling out flights around the October English half term.

“On the first flight passengers are using our network to go on to no fewer than 18 different destinations, none of which could have been reached so easily before.”

The 18 destinations are Dubai, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Colombo, the Maldives, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Cochin, Mauritius, Singapore, the Seychelles, and Jeddah.

“The North East public have quickly realised the scope of travel with Emirates from Newcastle stretches beyond Dubai easily, with good connections at very competitive prices.”

Emirates currently flies to six destination in the UK from Australia, including London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and the new route of Newcastle.

Flight schedule:

Starting on September 1, Emirates flight EK036 will depart Newcastle International Airport each day at 13:40, arriving into Dubai International Airport at 00:05 the following day. The inbound flight, EK035, is scheduled to depart Dubai at 07:20 every day, arriving in Newcastle at 12:10. (All times are local)

Flights from Australia arrive into Dubai less than 2 hours before the 07:20 departure to Newcastle. From Brisbane passengers land at 06:00 while from Perth passengers arrive in Dubai at 05:45. 

The service will be operated by an Airbus A330-200 aircraft, with 27 Business Class and 251 Economy Class seats. It also provides a daily cargo carrying capacity of 14 tonnes.

Report by The Mole