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Ok, I’m going to have to start taking Ft. Lauderdale airport a bit more seriously because, if I’m being completely honest, I’ve always seen it as an overspill airport for Miami and really only useful if you’re a big JetBlue flyer……but apparently it’s more than that.
Emirates has just announced that it will begin flights between Dubai and Ft. Lauderdale in December this year and the airline will be operating a daily service.
Emirates To Fly To Ft. Lauderdale
From 15 December 2016 Emirates plans to operate a daily Dubai – Ft. Lauderdale service using its 777-200LR aircraft on the following schedule:
EK213 DXB 03:00 – 10:25 FLL
EK214 FLL 20:20 – 19:40+1 day DXB
The mammoth distance of around 7,825 miles sets the flight times at approximately 16.5 hours when flying west and 14.5 hours when flying east in either direction….and that’s a long time to be stuck in an aircraft!
The 777-200LR will be configured in a 3-cabin layout offering 8 First Class, 42 Business Class and 216 Economy Class seats.
Tim Clark, the President of Emirates, said that it was the “strong performance” of the airline’s Dubai – Orlando route that led to Ft. Lauderdale being selected as the 11th Emirates US destination.
Emirates 777-200LR – image courtesy of BriYYZ via Flickr
He went on to say:
We anticipate our service will contribute to the economy of South Florida by bringing new travellers to the area from across our route network, at the same time offering greater competitive choice for consumers and new one-stop passenger and air cargo connectivity for the region to the global destinations that we serve.
Emirates has a codeshare partnership with JetBlue which helps to further explain the decision to fly to Ft. Lauderdale – the airport is a big JetBlue hub and the airline serves “over 26 destinations” from it.
Interestingly JetBlue has, this summer, upped its game at Ft. Lauderdale by launching its Mint Class (First Class) service on flights to Los Angeles so that may work well for Emirates’ premium cabin flyers.
Emirates 777-200LR
Emirates is more than an airline, its a giant PR machine too and that PR machine has done a fantastic job of promoting the airline as one that offers the best premium cabin products around…but that’s not always true.
On the 777-200LR the Business Class cabin may offer lie-flat seats but there’s no all-aisle access and the airline still has 3 seats across the middle of the cabin:
The layout is as bad as the old American Airlines 777-200s!
In Economy Class the news is mixed. On the positive side Emirates hasn’t squeezed in too many rows into the Economy Class cabin and, as a result, passengers will get a very generous 33″ of seat pitch (leg room):
But, on the negative side, Emirates has 10-across seating in the cabin so the seats are a horrible 17″ wide.
People make the mistake of thinking that seat width only affects those with a larger physique around the waist but a narrow seat also means a lot less room around the shoulders and that’s not a good thing when your flight is over 12 hours long.
Award Travel
This new Emirates route will be good news for those with Alaska Miles as it gives them another route on which to use their miles if they want to fly with Emirates.
A one-way First Class award between Ft. Lauderdale and Dubai will cost 150,000 miles while a one-way Business Class award will set you back 82,500 miles.
Personally I wouldn’t burn my miles on this Business Class cabin but, if you have more miles than you know what to do with, this could be an option for you.
Bottom Line
It’s good to see yet more flights coming to South Florida and the new Emirates flight may offer some competition to Qatar Airways which, unless I’m mistaken, is currently the only one of the ME3 to operate a non-stop service to the Miami metropolitan area. It will be interesting to see what, if any, effect this has on the fares.
Featured image courtesy of Dennis Bernhard via Flickr
