UAE: Emirates To Serve Iftar Meals In Flight During Ramadan

Emirates is to provide passengers with some home comforts during Ramadan, Emirates will be offering special iftar meals to passengers of all cabin classes.

According to a statement issued by Emirates, the special meals will be available to passengers on select Emirates flights, including flights to and from the Gulf region, as well as on flights catering to Umrah groups travelling to Jeddah and Medina during Ramadan.

We are pleased to offer our customers a signature Iftar service during the holy month of Ramadan, across all cabin classes.

Our Iftar service will be available on select flights, including flights to and from the Gulf region as well as on flights catering to Umrah groups travelling to Jeddah and Medina during Ramadan.

This year, Emirates’ iftar boxes feature an Arabesque design inspired by the region, and will provide those observing Ramadan a convenient way to break their fast with a nutritious and balanced meal.

While catering to a global palate, the iftar menus will also feature a Middle Eastern flavour.

The Iftar box includes options such as za’atar chicken with hummus, spinach fatayer, halloumi cheese and cucumber sandwiches, and traditional sweets such as maamoul and dates, as well as yoghurt.

Menus will be refreshed mid-Ramadan.

“Emirates utilises a unique tool to calculate the correct timings for imsak,the time to commence fasting and iftar while in-flight,” said the airline in a statement.

The tool calculates the exact Ramadan timings using the aircraft’s longitude, latitude and altitude; ensuring the greatest level of accuracy possible while on board. When the sun sets, the captain will inform passengers of the iftar time.

This tool was developed to supplement Emirates’ annually produced booklet on the timings for Ramadan, available on every flight.

Emirates SkyCargo has operated its freighter aircraft from Birmingham airport as part of a new service for the transportation of Jaguar Land Rover cars to Chicago. The cars are being delivered for further testing.

The freighter service is part of Emirates SkyCargo’s specialised offering, Emirates SkyWheels, to transport high value automobiles.

Emirates SkyCargo said in a statement it has seen huge demand from customers around the world for transportation solutions for specific products, which is why the business launched offerings such as Emirates SkyPharma, Emirates SkyWheels, and Emirates SkyFresh.

An expansion of Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport has been delayed by a year until 2018, the airport’s operator said on Wednesday.

Currently Dubai’s second-largest airport, it will have the capacity to handle 26 million passengers a year when the expansion is complete.

Al Maktoum airport opened in 2013 and can currently handle about seven million passengers a year. Its expansion has been delayed due to the completion of construction and to allow time for trials and testing, a spokesman for Dubai Airports said.

The Dubai government said on Sunday that it had secured $3 billion in long-term financing for expansion of its airports, which are forecast to serve 146.3 million passengers by 2025.

Al Maktoum International, located on the edge of Dubai, is being gradually ramped up to take over from Dubai International Airport, currently the world’s busiest and home to Emirates airline.

Dubai Airports’ Chief Executive Paul Griffiths said in January that budget carrier flydubai would move its operations from Dubai International to Al Maktoum International in the third quarter of this year.

Emirates airline is slated to move to Al Maktoum International in 2025.

A Dubai Airports spokesman said it aims to expand Al Maktoum further to handle 240 million passengers a year but that there was no date yet for when that would be.

This year, passenger traffic across Dubai’s two international airports is expected to reach just over 90 million in 2017, the spokesman said.