Emirates, which launched daily nonstop service between Boston’s Logan International Airport and Dubai in 2014, has added a second daily flight between the two cities.
The Dubai-based airline’s additional flight is expected to have a $100 million annual economic impact in the region in terms of visitor, passenger, crew and airline spending, and airport facility charges, on top of the estimated $200 million generated annually by the first flight, according to Massport, which runs Logan.
“Adding an additional flight to Boston … highlights the vibrancy of the demand that exists between Boston and Dubai,” said Saj Ahmad, aviation analyst at StrategicAero Research. “This is a massive commercial and economic market that has been wholly ignored by U.S. airlines at their own peril.”
Emirates started its Boston-Dubai flights in March 2014 with a 266-passenger Boeing 777-200LR, and demand prompted it to upgrade to a 364-passenger 777-300ER that August.
Since its launch, Emirates has carried 293,000 passengers on the route through this past August, and its service has resulted in ?30 percent more people traveling on to India from Boston, according to Massport. Beyond Dubai, the top destinations for outbound passengers on the Dubai flight include Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, India.
In terms of cargo, lobsters account for 55 percent of the value of Emirates’ exports out of Boston, according to the airline. Some 135 tons of lobsters (about 223,917 of the crustaceans) are exported from Boston each month and primarily are delivered to Dubai, Shanghai and Guangdong in China, Bangkok and Taiwan, the airline said. Emirates’ top cargo imports to Boston are garments and textile products from Chennai, India, and Sri Lanka.
