Caroline Cook, deputy editor of our sister publication, Routes News, reports from the World Travel Market in London.

Emirates' UK boss on the recent additions of Clark in the Philippines, Sialkot in Pakistan and Conakry in Guinea.

Emirates has shown no signs of slowing down and has expanded its network considerably in the last few weeks.

Laurie Berryman, vice president of UK and Ireland, told Routes News at WTM that more points will join the network in the months ahead.

“We started Clark in the Philippines last month, and – coming quite thick and fast over the next few weeks – we’ve got Sialkot in Northern Pakistan,” said Berryman.

“Africa’s growing like mad too. We started Konakry in Guinea last week.

“We’ve also got Kabul in Afghanistan starting in December, which is an interesting one. There’s a lot of security and business going in and out of Kabul at the minute as the country stabilises,” he said.

Emirates also began operating its Milan-New York route in October, which Berryman says is popular with business travellers flying between the two fashion cities.

Passengers can also look forward to flights to Taipei, due to begin in February 2014.

While the carrier is looking forward to a likely 40 million-plus passenger total for 2013, Berryman says this is down to “luck of geography”.

He stated: “The difference between Europe and the Middle East is that the Middle East supports aviation.

“Emirates provides over 20% Dubai’s GDP. They realise that we bring wealth to the country and we are fully supported by our government.”

Noting the opening of Dubai World Central in recent weeks, Berryman concluded: “We can see that the future is aviation and we are providing the capacity for that future.”

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