United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier, Emirates Airline, has announced it will introduce a fifth daily flight between Dubai and Singapore from August 1, 2014. This will bring the carriers total number of flights between the two cities to 35 a week, with 28 non-stop services and seven flights via Colombo, Sri Lanka. The airline also offers onward flights from Singapore to Brisbane and Melbourne in Australia.

“The introduction of our fifth daily service between Dubai and Singapore is a reflection of the growing passenger demand for flights between these two important global business, trade and tourism hubs. The increased frequency will give our customers greater flexibility in their travel plans allowing them to connect seamlessly to other flights on Emirates’ extensive global network,” said Barry Brown, divisional senior vice president, commercial operations east, Emirates Airline.

Emirates began flights to Singapore in 1990 and it remains an important gateway in the Far East & Australasia region for the carrier, connecting passengers to Melbourne, Brisbane, Colombo and Dubai, and onward to destinations across Europe, the United States, Africa and the Middle East. The carrier will deploy a 364-seat Boeing 777-300, with 12 First Class seats, 42 Business Class seats and 310 Economy Class seats on this additional Dubai - Singapore non-stop service.

This year, Emirates has already introduced services to Kiev, Taipei and Boston and has announced the start of services to Abuja and Kano, Nigeria (August 1, 2014); Chicago, USA (August 5, 2014); Oslo, Norway (September 2, 2014) and Brussels, Belgium (September 5, 2014).

In our analysis we look at the origin and destination of passengers that flew on Emirates Airline’s flights in and out of Singapore Changi International Airport in 2013. According to MIDT data, an estimated 610,000 O&D passengers used the airline’s flights at the Asian hub airport in 2013, up 10.6 per cent on the previous year. Passengers connected from or to one of 741 different global destinations, the analysis shows.

In the chart below we highlight the ten largest O&D markets for Emirates Airline from or to Singapore. Alongside the destinations served directly from the Asian hub the analysis is dominated by the UK with London Heathrow, Manchester, London Gatwick and Glasgow the largest indirect links to Singapore through the Emirates network.