Emirates Enters Winter Season With Strong Booking Momentum
UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM – 14th Sep, 2026
Dubai, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News) Emirates has closed the summer season ahead of expectations and enters winter with strong booking momentum across a broadening range of markets, as the airline continues to invest in its fleet and industry-leading products, in its global network, and in offering customers greater booking flexibility and comprehensive travel cover.
Between July and August, Emirates carried more than 8.6 million passengers, maintaining healthy seat load factors across its network. The airline is currently operating at around 93 percent of its pre-disruption capacity, with demand continuing to build as the winter travel season approaches.
Bookings for winter, beginning in late October, are tracking positively despite a broader shift where customers are making travel decisions closer to departure.
Strong demand is being seen from:
- South Africa
- Brazil
- India
- Portugal
- Egypt
- Ghana
- Colombia
- Saudi Arabia
- Pakistan
Additionally, Nepal through Emirates’ partnership with flydubai is also experiencing strong demand.
The UAE remains a strong outbound market, while demand for premium travel on Emirates continues to grow.
Emirates services to and from:
- West Asia
- Europe
- the Middle East
- the Americas
- Africa
all recorded seat load factors well above 75 percent during the summer, with particularly strong performance on routes to and from Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire and across the UK.
Demand for Premium Economy grew across the network, with the Americas recording the strongest growth in demand for this cabin.
Dubai also continued to attract strong inbound traffic. In late August alone, more than half a million customers arrived in Dubai on Emirates flights, up 7 percent on the same period last year. Travellers included residents returning ahead of the new school year, new residents relocating to Dubai to live and work, and visitors choosing the city for a late-summer break.
Over the summer, customers had more reasons to choose Emirates. The airline boosted its flexibility proposition with one free date change anywhere across the network, and unlimited free date changes to Dubai. It also reduced refund fees on Dubai journeys and introduced Comprehensive Travel Cover, a first-of-its-kind policy which includes medical cover protecting against conflict and airspace disruption, backed by airline-managed accommodation, ground support and rebooking where needed.
Since January 2026, the airline has welcomed 18 aircraft: 11 new A350s and seven Boeing 777 freighters – with another six A350s scheduled to arrive before the end of December.
To date, 104 aircraft have completed Emirates’ retrofit program, including 53 Boeing 777s and 51 A380s. This brings the number of aircraft offering Premium Economy and Emirates’ latest cabin products to 137. By the end of December, that number will have risen to 155 aircraft.
