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If you live in the New York area, getting to Greece or the United Arab Emirates just got easier. Starting March 12th, Emirates will commence service to Newark, new Jersey, which is their 12th US destination. This addition will compliment the four flights from JFK, three nonstops and one via Milan.

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An Emirates 777-300ER landing at London Heathrow.

Newark to Dubai will not be operated nonstop, rather, Emirates will be commencing a new fifth-freedom route via Athens, Greece. This is similar in set-up to the Dubai-Milan-JFK fifth freedom route. What is a fifth freedom you ask? Put simply, it allows airlines to carry passengers from one’s own country to a second country, and from that country to a third country. Freedoms are really cool, and this youtube video is a great primer on them.

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Newark to Dubai, via Athens. Map courtesy of gcmap.com

This new route will be operated by Emirates’ 777-300ER, which has a few different seating variations, but expect 8 first class seats, 42 business class seats, and roughly 350 economy seats. Per airlineroute.net, the schedule is as follows:

EK209 DXB1050 – 1530ATH1730 – 2200EWR 77W D
EK210 EWR2345 – 1600+1ATH1800+1 – 2340+1DXB 77W D

As airlineroute.net also points out, this is the first time New York and Athens have been connected with year-round nonstop since 2012. Currently United and Delta operate summer seasonal service from Newark and JFK, respectively. Sadly, you won’t get to try out the only shower in the sky, as that feature is only found on Emirates’ A380s.

(READ MORE:  Emirates A380 First Class review Dubai to New York)

It’ll be interesting to see how United and Delta respond, as Delta has been an outspoke critic of Emirates’ expansion to the United States.

Are you excited to see another nonstop option open up in the US-Greece market? Let us know below!

Header image courtesy of Adrian Pingstone.


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