Emirates Airline is set to launch its new direct route to San Francisco International Airport on December 15, 2008 and is doing so with what is being billed as a cross-polar green flight. The sixteen hour non-stop flight will leave Dubai at 8:55am, and land at SFO at 1:00pm that day, by taking the most direct route over the top of the world through newly established airspace routes over Russia.
The inaugural trip to San Francisco – an important destination for Emirates Airlines to connect the middle east to San Francisco, not merely for its tourism and the many sightseeing attractions, such as Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, and beyond into Muir Woods, the wine country of Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley offering its many local wineries, and up to Yosemite National Park, but also for the significance of the San Francisco bay area as a business and technology hub. The inaugural flight will highlight a host of environmentally considerate steps aimed at minimizing fuel consumption and pollutants. Using an all new ultra-efficient airplane - the Boeing 777-200LR, the flight will not only utilize the more favorable direct route, but will incorporate a number of complementing measures:
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a thorough cleaning and polishing to minimize wind resistance
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use electricity on the ground, rather than fuel
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priority clearance on taxiways and runways
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priority departure route to its cruising altitude
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priority routing over Russian, Canada and the north pole for shortest distance and most favorable winds
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SFO landing priority with direct approach and continuous decent
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single-engine taxiing
While these and other measures are being maximized for the inaugural flight to San Francisco to explore the benefits, they will be refined and incorporated into the regular flights between Dubai and San Francisco as this new route gets established. The Emirates Airline is committed to these measures not solely for the cost savings to its bottom line, but it is equally as interested in reducing the environment impact of the firm’s services on the world. The airline maintains the industry’s youngest fleet, and operates highly-efficiency aircraft with the latest technology, giving it the most fuel-efficient fleet of wide-bodied airplanes of any airline. Combining new technologies for aircraft, flight operations, and traffic management with corporate initiative will allow airlines to drive industry wide carbon-footprint reductions and bring countries together for a common mission. The inaugural and subsequent Emirates Airline flights from Dubai to San Francisco, will highlight these efforts, and drive eco-friendly business and tourism in both cities.
