Dubai’s Emirates airline has announced it is to resume flights to more destinations in South America and the US, as demand begins to return following the slowdown as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The airline will resume flights to Seattle from Feb. 1 and Dallas and San Francisco from March 2. This will boost to ten the number of cities it flies to in the US, with flights already operating to Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York JFK, Toronto and Washington.

In South America, it will also introduce a fifth weekly flight to São Paulo from Feb. 5. The Dubai-based airline currently serves 114 destinations across six continents.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) last week announced that total global passenger demand was down 70.3 percent year-on-year in November, a slight improvement on the 70.6 percent year-to-year decline recorded in October.

Middle Eastern airlines saw demand drop 86 percent in the same month, another slight improvement on the 86.9 percent year-on-year drop in October.

The IATA data showed North American demand was down 83 percent in November (and 87.8 percent in October), while in Latin America the drop was 78.6 percent, a strong improvement on the 86.1 percent drop year-on-year in October.

Sunbd/NJ