Brazil will receive today, October 1st, the first direct flight between Dubai and São Paulo, which is scheduled to arrive at Guarulhos Airport on Monday, October 1st, at 6:30 pm. According to Emirates airline, which operates the flight, among those arriving in São Paulo will be passengers from the Emirates as well as other from China, India, Singapore and Sri-Lanka.
The flight left Dubai at 10:01 am, local time, according to information on the airline's web page. From São Paulo to Dubai, the first flight will leave in the early hours of Tuesday, at 1:25 am, and is scheduled to arrive in the Emirates at 11:05 pm (local time). The duration of the flight is 15 hours – and the time difference between both regions is six hours.
A direct flight between Brazil and the United Arab Emirates was a demand of the Brazilian business sector to simplify trade between both areas. According to information disclosed in September by the director of Emirates Airline Brazil, Ralf Aasman, the flights are expected to have over 70% occupation.
Emirates will transport the passengers from São Paulo to Dubai, and vice versa, in Boeing 777-200 LR aircraft. The company will fly to each of the destinations six times a week, every day except Thursday from Dubai to São Paulo and every day except Friday from São Paulo to Dubai, but plans include daily flights for the near future. Round-trip tickets costs start at US$ 1,355, in economy class.
Emirates, in fact, promises great luxury on its flights. Television screens in first class are 27-inch, in executive class, 17-inch and in economy class, 10-inch. The passengers will also have access to the Internet and will have channels with movies, games and documentaries. The idea is to stop the passengers feeling bored during the 15 hours of the flight.
The airline will also offer a mileage program and VIP rooms to its passengers. In the beginning, the Varig VIP rooms in Brasil will be used until Emirates has its own space. The Dubai-São Paulo flight will include crews of Portuguese speakers.
The expectation, in Brazil, is that the Emirates initiative should help increase trade between Brazil and the Emirates. Between January and August this year, Brazil exported US$ 761.6 million in products to the Emirates. Of this total, however, just US$ 17.4 million, or 2.2%, were shipped through airports.
The airports that shipped products to the region were São Paulo, Campinas and Rio de Janeiro (in the Southeast of the country), Curitiba and Porto Alegre (in the South) and Bahia (in the Northeast).
On the other route, Arab exports were even smaller. The Emirates exported US$ 204 million to Brazil between January and August, of which just US$ 1.1 million in products, or 0.5%, were shipped through airports. The products arrived in Campinas, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
The direct flight should provide incentives to trade relations between Brazil and the Arab world as a whole, as the airline has flights from the Emirates to other Arab countries and the idea is for the Brazilians to use these flights to reach their destinations.
In trade between Brazil and the Arab world there are also aerial exports, but as is the case with the Emirates, they are also very small.
In the first eight months of the year, for example, of the US$ 3.6 billion that Brazil imported from the Arab world, just US$ 15 million came by air. Of the total Brazilian exports to the region, US$ 4.6 billion in the period, just US$ 292 million were shipped through airports.
Anba – www.anba.com.br
