JOHANNESBURG, Jun 22 – Emirates has added more flights on its South African routes following high demand for flights to the final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Emirates, the official airline of the tournament, will operate a brace of flights to Cape Town and Johannesburg on July 12 and 13.
Essa Sulaiman Ahmad, Emirates’ Regional Manager for East African said: “Being an Official Partner of the 2010 FIFA World Cup not only demonstrates our ongoing support of the game, it enables us to use our sponsorship to take the world to South Africa for this incredible sporting event. We are delighted to offer these additional flights to help ensure that as many supporters as possible have the chance to Live the Unforgettable this summer.”
To demonstrate its support for the World Cup, Emirates has installed big screens in airports across the world where the airline’s customers can watch live broadcasts as they wait to board. In addition to this First Class and Business Class Lounges will also broadcast the matches live so that frequent fliers and premium passengers enjoy all the live football action.
Emirates’ onboard award-winning ice entertainment service now features recordings of all the games from the 64-match tournament within a few hours of them taking place, as well as live goal-by-goal updates and text commentary.
Mr Ahmad added: “While football fans can enjoy live action from the FIFA World Cup in airports across our network, we can ensure that our passengers onboard miss none of the joy and heartache of this great sporting tournament, with screenings of recent matches and live score updates. This is another important way that we utilize our FIFA sponsorship to benefit our passengers and sport fans around the world.”
Emirates serves South Africa with five daily non-stop flights from Nairobi, through Dubai, into the three gateways of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town and is connecting thousands of fans from across its network of 102 destinations. The additional flights comprise an extra round trip service to both Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Emirates’ partnership with FIFA began at the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ when it became the first airline to be a sponsor of the prestigious sporting event. Following on from the success of the tournament in Germany, Emirates then cemented its status as an Official FIFA Partner up to and including the 2014 FIFA World Cup™.
