Eid Al Fitr: Emirates adds flights to Gulf destinations to meet increased demand

Emirates has announced 17 additional flights to destinations in the Middle East to meet demand during the Eid Al Fitr holidays. More than 371,000 passengers are expected to fly with the Dubai airline between March 26 and April 6. Residents in the Gulf are expected to get up to four days of paid leave for Eid Al Fitr, with the festival expected to start on Monday, March 31, depending on when the Shawwal moon is sighted. Eid Al Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, coincides with the start of the Shawwal, the 10th month of the Islamic calendar. The exact start date of Shawwal will be determined in the final days of the holy month. Emirates is adding six flights to and from Amman, and another five flights between Dammam and Dubai. The airline will be running an extra four flights from Jeddah and the airline’s schedule from Kuwait will extend to another two services. During the holidays, Emirates will also be serving a special Eid menu across all travel classes on select flights to and from Dubai. The menu will include traditional favourites chicken madhbi; prawn matfi; chicken makloubeh; mixed grills such as chicken shish taouk and lamb kofta; halwa brownie; and pistachio cake. Last week, Emirates predicted more than 80,000 passengers a day would to travel through its dedicated Terminal 3 at Dubai International on March 28-29 and April 5-6 – the busiest dates of the Eid Al Fitr holiday.<br/>