— Emirates marks its inaugural flight to Brussels, Belgium

Emirates, has today marked its inaugural flight to Brussels in Belgium.

The new daily service will see up to 16,000 Emirates customers travelling on the daily Boeing 777-200LR between Dubai and Brussels each month.

As the airline’s 145th worldwide route, Emirates will play a key role in further developing natural business links between Belgium and key markets in the Far East.

ZANIS reports that this is contained in a statement made available in Lusaka today by Managing Director of Langmead and Baker Communications, Gillian Langmead.

Emirates also estimates that it will deliver a boost to the country’s tourism sector, with Belgium a popular jumping off point for Europe bound travelers from Austral-Asia.

“Emirates are the only airline offering First Class seats from Brussels to destinations in the Far and Middle East, providing an unrivalled premium experience for our passengers,” The statement  read in part.

“As headquarters for a huge number of major global corporations we are already seeing strong bookings from markets like China, the UAE, Japan and India, one of Belgium’s largest trade partners,”  it added.

The statement further said UAE is a key trading partner of Belgium with more than €4 billion of goods exchanged between the two countries each year.

Both import and export of goods have grown steadily since 2009 with 1504 Belgian companies exporting goods to the UAE in the last year.

Over 30 Belgian companies successfully operate within the UAE. In fact, Belgian companies in part, constructed two of the Dubai’s most iconic landmarks.

Tourism to Brussels from the UAE has grown significantly in the last five years with the number of visitors more than tripling since 2009.

The new direct link from Dubai to Brussels is expected to grow this sector even further, as well as increasing inbound traffic from key markets in the Far East and Australasia.