Emirates cuts New York flights to twice daily in June

Emirates has confirmed that it will drop its third daily Dubai-New York JFK flight (EK207/208) between June 4-30 and it will be reintroduced on July 1.

The reductions follow cuts to five of its 12 destinations following weakening demand from the travel and laptop bans. The recently launched seven weekly flights to New York Newark are unaffected.

In a statement, the airline said the decision was made as part of a “routine operational review” although it comes on the back of further network cuts, indicating it’s not just the US flights where the airline is facing challenges.

The Dubai carrier is also to trim its Birmingham flights to twice daily from September 1 (EK041/EK042 suspended).

Late last month, the airline cut 25 of its 126 weekly flights to the US from five cities including Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Seattle, Boston and Los Angeles.

Emirates blamed the decision on a drop in demand.

“The recent actions taken by the US government relating to the issuance of entry visas, heightened security vetting, and restrictions on electronic devices in aircraft cabins, have had a direct impact on consumer interest and demand for air travel into the US,” an airline spokesperson said.

“Until the start of 2017, Emirates’ operations in the US have seen healthy growth and performance. However, over the past three months, we have seen a significant deterioration in the booking profiles on all our US routes, across all travel segments.

“Emirates has therefore responded as any profit-oriented enterprise would, and we will redeploy capacity to serve demand on other routes on our global network,” the spokesperson added.

The airline, which had planned to increase its US network to 15 cities by 2018, may also review its expansion plans, it chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said.

He told reporters that it would be “sensible” not to add flights “until you see an improvement.”

Read more: Emirates chairman signals US expansion plans on hold after travel curbs