The Chicago flag is waved from the window of a Boeing 777-200LR as the airline celebrates it’s inaugural flight into O’Hare International Airport Chicago.
Emirates has commenced a daily nonstop passenger service to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Onboard the inaugural flight was a joint VIP delegation from the US and Dubai as well as international media. The inaugural flight carried passengers from more than 20 different countries to Chicago, demonstrating just how Emirates connects people across the globe.
“The Chicago route extends our passenger network to America’s third-largest city and complements our existing dedicated freighter service that operates to O’Hare,” said Adel al-Redha, Emirates Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. “The launch of this route, will allow us to offer Emirates’ unique product and award-winning service to passengers flying to and from the Midwest to our home in Dubai or onwards to more than 140 global destinations including the Far East, Africa and India.”
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said: “Launching Chicago-Dubai nonstop passenger service is another important step in establishing Chicago as one of the top tourism destinations in the world and achieving our goal of hosting 55mn visitors by 2020. Increased connectivity with Dubai will expose more international guests to the world-class hospitality, shopping districts, cultural attractions and architectural achievements that make Chicago one of the greatest cities in the world.”
The new service will operate as flight EK235, departing from Dubai International airport at 9.45am and arriving at O’Hare at 3.25pm. The return flight, EK236, will depart O’Hare at 8.35pm and arrive in Dubai at 7.10pm the next day. The route will be served by the US-built Boeing 777-200LR aircraft powered by GE90 engines. Emirates is the largest operator of Boeing 777 aircraft in the world, with a fleet of 128 passenger aircraft and 11 freighters.
In addition to passenger service, the Chicago-Dubai flight will carry up to 17 tons of cargo per flight and increase trade links between the two cities. Emirates began operating cargo service to Chicago in 2013. Currently, Emirates SkyCargo flies a twice-weekly, dedicated freight service out of O’Hare that carried nearly 12,000 tonnes of cargo last year.
Emirates began passenger services to the US in 2004 with services to New York. The airline has steadily added more US routes over the past decade. Chicago is the ninth US gateway to join the Emirates network, following the launch of the Boston service in March.
In addition to being one of America’s most important economic engines, Chicago is famous for its cuisine, arts and entertainment, professional sports, neo-classical architecture and iconic tourist destinations that host more than 48mn visitors each year.
Whilst aboard the 14-hour, 40-minute flight, passengers can enjoy Emirates’ renowned service provided by a multilingual crew from more than 120 countries, gourmet on-board dining and inflight entertainment system – ice Digital Widescreen – with more than 1,800 channels of movies, TV programmes, music and podcasts. The aircraft features a three-cabin configuration with eight private First Class suites, 42 Business Class lie-flat beds and 216 Economy Class seats.
