Emirates cutting capacity to India

Unsurprisingly, airlines around the world are trimming their schedules in response to low passenger demand associated with the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

As noted by Routes Online, Emirates has just released its updated flight schedule for the northern winter (covering October 25, 2020 and March 27, 2021) – and there are a series of cuts to the airline’s Indian destinations.

Emirates to offer fewer flights to India

One of the most eye-catching changes to the new schedule is that Emirates will operate very few of its famous A380s. None of the airline’s Indian destinations will be served by the A380 (in any case, only a small number of Indian airports, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, airports, are certified for A380 operations).

Emirates won’t send its A380s to the US, either, relying instead on Boeing 777-200LR and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to service its American routes.

The following changes to Emirates’ Indian flight schedule for the winter season have also been announced:

• Dubai to Ahmedabad – this route reduces from 9 to 7 weekly flights, operated by a Boeing 777-200LR
• Dubai to Bengaluru – route reduces from 24 to 14 weekly flights, Boeing 777-300ER operating
• Dubai to Chennai – reduces from 21 to 14 weekly flights, 777-300ER operating
• Dubai to Delhi – reduces from 4 to 2 daily flights, 777-300ER operating. The previous plan was for 3 daily flights from December 1, 2020
• Dubai to Hyderabad – reduces from 3 to 2 daily, 777-300ER operating
• Dubai to Kochi – 2 daily flights, operated by 777-200LR/-300ER
• Dubai to Kolkata – reduces from 11 to 7 weekly, 777-300ER operating
• Dubai to Mumbai – reduces from 5 to 2 daily, 777-300ER operating and A380 removed. The previous plan was for 3 daily flights from December 1, 2020
• Dubai to Thiruvananthapuram – 7 weekly flights, operated by 777-300ER

As you can see, the A380 is being withdrawn from Mumbai and most of Emirates’ services to India will be operated by Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, meaning first class should be available on some routes.

Emirates runs three versions of its Boeing 777-300ER planes – just one of them doesn’t feature a first-class cabin. In all cases, business class is in a 2-3-2 configuration.

You can read about Emirates’ top cabin in our review of both the old and new first class product.

Summing up

It won’t come as a surprise to see Emirates cutting its services to India (as well as just about every other international destination), though it’s reassuring that Bengaluru, Kochi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai will get double-daily service (or an equivalent number of weekly flights).

What do you make of Emirates’ newly-released winter schedule?