Emirates Launches Service to Mexico via Barcelona (7x Weekly)

Today, Emirates announced a daily service to Mexico City International Airport (MEX) from Dubai Airport (DXB). Due to logistic difficulties, this flight will stop at Barcelona (BCN). The choice of Barcelona is very interesting.

Talk about killing two birds with a stone.

Emirates Mexico Service Details

The service will be operated using a two-class Boeing 777-200LR. This aircraft has 38 business class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration and 264 seats in economy.

It appears that one of the reasons for the choice of aircraft is also the cargo carrying capacity. Without going into numbers, both Spain and UAE are major markets for Mexican produce like avocados, berries etc. In fact, Emirates has been ferrying cargo from Mexico since 2014.

These are the flight timings (all local time)

• EK 255: DXB (3:00 AM) -> BCN (8:00 AM); BCN (9:55 AM) -> MEX (4:15 PM)
• EK 256: MEX (7:40 PM) -> BCN (1:25 PM +1); BCN (3:10 PM) -> DXB (00:45 AM +1)

There is less than two hours of technical stop at Barcelona which is great news. Even better news for Emirates is that this is the third fifth freedom service to North America (after Athens -> NY and Milan -> NY).

The service will begin on December 9, 2019. Just in time for the peak season in Dubai.

Final Thoughts

I think it is a very smart move by Emirates. One that has been under discussion for more than a year now. I am pretty certain that the launch took so long because of approvals surrounding the BCN – MEX leg.

Both Mexico and Dubai are great tourist destinations. When you add Barcelona in between, the move makes a lot of sense. Tim Clark said,

“Due to the high altitude of Mexico City airport, it is not possible to operate a non-stop flight from Dubai, and Barcelona was a natural choice for a stopover. We are pleased to offer a direct connection on the route between the Spanish city and Mexico City that has long been neglected by other airlines and remains under-served despite the strong customer demand”