Arabian Travel: Dubai has become a sought after holiday destination following the introduction of Emirates Airline's direct Sao Paulo-Dubai service last October, the airline has claimed.
"Dubai is in fashion in Brazil at the moment - everyone wants to go there," Emirates' area manager for South America Ralf Aasmann told ATN.
"Dubai has been in the press and there has been a lot of business travel between the two regions - with many travellers taking advantage of the Emirates flight."
He said load factors on the route had been strong both ways and that the flight was often full.
As a result, Emirates will increase the frequency of the service from six times weekly to daily on July 1.
Aasmann ruled out plans to take the service to double daily in the immediate future but said it could happen at some point in the future.
He also quashed rumours that Emirates planned to introduce a direct service from Dubai to Buenos Aires.
"There are no plans at the moment - we are still looking at Buenos Aires and hope to open a branch there," he said.
The same applied to Chile, he added, noting that Argentina and Chile were the top two onward destinations from the Sao Paulo flight, with services to these destinations operated by Emirates' airline partners including TAM and Lan Chile.
Rio de Janerio had also performed strongly Aasmann said.
"It's a destination we are looking at [to fly to] all of the time, but the trouble is you don't get the corporate market travelling there," he explained.
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