Emirates to launch flights to Bamako, Mali
Emirates airline will connect Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali, to its global network from 25th October 2015.
Bamako is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with a population of about 2.3 million people, and is located in the south western part of Mali on the Niger River. Once services commence, it will become Emirates’ 28th destination in Africa and 6th in West Africa, further strengthening the region’s connectivity with the world through the airline’s global network of more than 140 destinations across six continents.
Bamako will be linked to Emirates’ current four times weekly service to Dakar, Senegal, which is operated by an Emirates Airbus A340-300 and with 12 seats in First Class, 42 in Business Class and 213 seats in Economy Class.
“There is currently no direct service between Dubai and Bamako. Mali has a growing economy and huge tourism potential, and we expect that linking Bamako to our Dakar service will greatly boost both business and leisure travel to and from Mali,” said Adil Al Ghaith, Emirates Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Northern and Western Africa.
“For example, Emirates will now connect Bamako with 24 cities in the Far East and Australasia and 16 in the Middle East, through just one convenient stop at our state of the art hub Dubai. This will reduce travel time and increase comfort when travelling to and from Mali,” he added.
Mali is one of Africa’s top gold producers, and it also boasts four UNESCO world heritage sites, which are the famous city of Timbuktu, the Old Towns of Djenne, the Tomb of Askia and the Cliff of Bandiagara.
In addition to passenger services, Emirates SkyCargo, the airline’s freight division, offers about 13 tonnes of cargo capacity per flight, which will further support Mali’s exports, such as seed oil, leather, fresh fruit and semi-conductors, and imports of woven fabrics, machinery parts and components, pharmaceutical products and electrical and electronic equipment.
The flight to Bamako will depart Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 0720hrs and arrive in Bamako at 1310hrs. It will then depart Bamako at 1440hrs and arrive in Dakar at 1630hrs. The return flight will depart Dakar at 1800hrs and arrive back in Dubai at 0730hrs the next morning.