Dubai’s Emirates airline doubles daily flights to Lisbon

Dubai’s premier carrier Emirates has announced an additional daily flight to Lisbon to meet increasing demand.

The airline first launched flights from Dubai to Lisbon back in 2012 and has seen a steady increase in customer demand, averaging a 15% capacity growth per year, writes blogging website stepfeed, adding that “interestingly, Emirates also recently became the shirt sponsor for Lisbon’s Benfica football team”.

The news follows a visit to Portugal by the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayad Al Nahyan, who enjoyed a slap up banquet with deputy prime minister Paulo Portas after signing a number of agreements and MoUs (memoranda of understanding) to strengthen bilateral relations.

After the two men congratulated each other on the many and varied similarities between their two countries, Gulf Today’s online website adds that Sheikh Abdullah “expressed pride that the UAE was the first Arab country to get an exemption from the pre-Schengen visa requirement to a number of EU countries, commending the Portuguese side for its support in this resolution”.