Emirates Adds New Africa Destination

Emirates Adds New Africa Destination

New Zealanders will be able to connect to another destination in Africa when Emirates airline adds Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali, to its global network from October 25.

Bamako is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with a population of about 2.3 million people, and is located in the south western part of Mali on the Niger River. Mali is one of Africa’s top gold producers, and it also boasts four UNESCO world heritage sites, which are the famous city of Timbuktu, the Old Towns of Djenne, the Tomb of Askia and the Cliff of Bandiagara.

Once services commence, it will become Emirates’ 28th destination in Africa and sixth in West Africa, further strengthening the region’s connectivity with the world through the airline’s global network of more than 140 destinations across six continents.

Bamako will be linked to Emirates’ current four times weekly service to Dakar, Senegal, which is operated by an Emirates Airbus A340-300 and offers 12 luxurious seats in First Class, 42 deep reclining seats in Business Class and 213 spacious seats in Economy Class.

The service will provide direct connections at Dubai in each direction with all of Emirates daily services from Auckland and Christchurch.

“Mali has a growing economy and huge tourism potential, and we expect that linking Bamako to our Dakar service will greatly boost both business and leisure travel to and from Mali,” said Adil Al Ghaith, Emirates Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Northern and Western Africa.

“For example, Emirates will now connect Bamako with 24 cities in the Far East and Australasia and 16 in the Middle East, through just one convenient stop at our state of the art hub Dubai. This will reduce travel time and increase comfort when travelling to and from Mali,” he added.

Emirates’ Malian customers can look forward to the airline’s world famous service from its multi-national cabin crew on board all its flights, gourmet cuisine and its award-winning entertainment system ice, which offers hundreds of channels of audio and visual entertainment, including the latest movies, music, as well as audio books and games. Emirates also offers its customers generous baggage allowance, with 50kg for First Class, 40kg for Business Class and 30kg for Economy Class.

The flight to Bamako will depart Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 0720hrs and arrive in Bamako at 1310hrs. It will then depart Bamako at 1440hrs and arrive in Dakar at 1630hrs. The return flight will depart Dakar at 1800hrs and arrive back in Dubai at 0730hrs the next morning.

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