Emirates launches flight targeted at Edison, New Jersey

An
Emirates Boeing 777-300ER.
Boeing

• Emirates launched its first
  non-stop flight between Dubai and Newark Liberty International
  Airport in New Jersey.
• The route is targeted at New Jersey’s large Indian,
  Pakistani, and Bangladeshi population.
• According to Emirates, traffic flow into and out of the
  Indian subcontinent account for 1/3 of the airline’s entire US
  business.

Over the past three decades, Emirates built quite a business for
itself connecting the world through its home base in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates. For its US business, that means customers
flying into and out of the Indian subcontinent.

“The US to Indian Subcontinent market is indeed our biggest
traffic flow and we concentrate heavily on that,” Matthias
Schmid, Emirates’ senior vice president for North America,
told Business Insider in an interview.

According to Schmid, the region accounts for roughly 1/3 of the
airline’s entire US business. 

Hence the Emirates’ decision this June to shift one of its four
daily flights operating out of JFK International Airport in New
York across the Hudson River to Newark, New Jersey. 

Emirates Flight EK224 departs Newark Liberty International
Airport every morning at 11:50 am.

From Dubai, passengers can connect to the 15 cities in India,
Pakistan, and Bangladesh served by Emirates. 

The new daily non-stop flight between Newark Liberty
International Airport and Dubai joins the airline’s existing service to the
Northern New Jersey airport which includes a stopover in Athens,
Greece. 

Unfortunately, even with the presence of its partner JetBlue,
Emirates’ Newark passengers will have limited opportunities to
connect to other destinations in the US, Schmid said. As a
result, the flight’s success or failure will have to depend on
the local market. 

Fortunately, New Jersey doesn’t have a shortage of people that
need to fly into and out of India and its neighboring countries.
According to the 2010 census, New Jersey’s Indian
population grew 72.7% between 2000 and 2010. As a result, 40% of
all New Jersey’s entire Asian population come from India. The
state also boasts large populations from Pakistan and
Bangladesh. 

Emirates is well aware of this. 

“The region around Edison, New Jersey has the highest
concentration of individuals originating from the Indian
subcontinent in the US,” Schmid said. 

Emirates also believes its rivals have grossly underserved the
market.

“You have two carriers that operate directly into India, but
that’s really pretty much it,” Schmid said. As a result, Emirates
expects to be able to cultivate new business from its New Jersey
flights without cannibalizing the company’s existing JFK
traffic. 

However, it should be noted that the other two airlines, United
and Air India, fly non-stop from Newark to cities in India while
Emirates requires a stopover in Dubai. 

Since Newark Liberty does not have the capability to handle the
Airbus A380 Superjumbo, the new flight is operated using Boeing
777-300ER aircraft.