United Arab Emirates carrier, Emirates Airlines has announced it will begin operating a second daily service to Lisbon from January 1, 2016.

Since launching flights to Lisbon in July 2012, the Gulf carrier has recorded a significant increase in customer demand to and from Lisbon, with an average capacity growth of 15 percent per year.

The airline will be adding a daily afternoon flight to its schedule, which will depart Dubai at 14:40pm each day, arriving into the Portuguese capital at 19:20pm. The return flight will depart Lisbon at 21:00pm, arriving back into Dubai at 08:45am the following day.

“In the last three years our flights to Lisbon have gone from strength to strength both on the passenger and cargo side. There is clearly a need for another daily service to satisfy this demand, which is why we will start a second daily flight,” said Hubert Frach, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice President Commercial Operations West.

The new flight, operated by a Boeing 777-300ER will offer eight First Class Suites, 42 lie-flat Business Class seats, and 310 seats in Economy.

“The additional service will provide customers in Africa, the Far East and Australasia, the Middle East and West Asia with even easier access to Lisbon, supporting the burgeoning business and leisure traffic between these markets and Portugal,” he added.

According to the airline, it has continued to work closely with Visit Portugal to ensure a coordinated and sustained approach to attracting inbound tourism numbers to Portugal.

Portugal has continued to see strong growth across its tourism sector, in particular with visitor numbers from across the Far East continuing to increase with China, Japan and Korea highlighted by the country’s tourism board as being key markets for growth.

The growth in services to the Portuguese capital by the Gulf carrier follows the recent announcements of the airline as a shirt sponsor for Lisbon’s Benfica Football team until the end of the 2017/18 season.

Emirates currently fly to 37 cities across Europe, offering more than 65 flights per day across the continent.