Leather, silk, garments, tools, flowers, fruit, fish, plants and telecoms equipment to be loaded aboard Emirates' first passenger flight to Amsterdam are a sure sign that a new trading channel has been born.

As well as the usual United Nations mix of passengers on flights out of the airline's international hub in Dubai, there is similar international representation in the cargo hold with commodities from around the Indian sub-continent, Africa, the Far East and Australasia.


Salem Obaidalla, Senior Vice President, Europe & Russian Federation, said: "When we talk about our new routes lubricating trade, this is exactly what we mean. Each time we start a new service, new avenues of trade are created and in this case that can only help the economies of the UAE and the Netherlands. Emirates will provide a significant boost to commercial and tourism activity.

Ram Menen, Divisional Senior Vice President, Cargo, said: "This flight's cargo manifest is from all over the place; Lahore, Kolkata, Colombo (7 tonnes of plants no less!) Cape Town, Johannesburg, Dubai, Bengaluru, Hong Kong, Melbourne. While we're used to seeing such a wealth of commodities on our flights, it's great to see such variety in the belly hold of an inaugural. This daily passenger service will also provide an extra outlet for goods being moved from our particularly busy African markets of Kenya and Ethiopia."

Emirates SkyCargo has been serving Amsterdam with freighters for more than 15 years and flowers picked up from Africa, bound for auction in the Netherlands, are amongst the key commodities being shipped.

Mr Obaidalla added: "I'm pleased to say that in addition to shippers, passengers have also been keen to embrace our new service. Flights for the first few days to Amsterdam are already running near-on full - so a good start for our 23rd route into Europe."

Across the 216 seats in Economy, 42 seats in Business and 8 seats in First Class, passengers travelling on the 1st May will be able to enjoy the very latest offering aboard the airline's Boeing 777-200LR. An ultra-modern Boeing 777-300ER will also serve the route.


Emirates, which brings gourmet-chef prepared food to every cabin class and its award winning ice entertainment system, is the only carrier on the Dubai-Amsterdam route to offer First Class, boasting superb First Class Private Suites.

John Felix, Senior Vice President,' Emirates Holidays said: "The Netherlands presents an exciting new opportunity for Emirates Holidays to add on to the wide choice of holiday destinations it has on offer. To mark the launch of Emirates' flights to the country, we have come up with a mini-brochure on Amsterdam. We are positive that with its many attractive offerings for the leisure traveller, Amsterdam will soon become a destination of choice among our customers."

From 1st May, EK flight 145 will leave Dubai daily at 0825hrs and arrive in Amsterdam at 1330hrs. From Amsterdam, EK 146 departs at 1530hrs, arriving in Dubai at 2359hrs.

Prague is the next new route to be launched by the airline on 1st July, followed by Madrid on 1st August and Dakar in Senegal a month later.

Photo caption: The new daily passenger service from Dubai to Amsterdam will supplement the existing cargo capacity of'Emirates' SkyCargo freighters, which'already operate on the route.