Emirates Airbus A350 900 departing DXB
Emirates has announced that starting February 8, 2026, it will launch its fourth daily flight between Dubai International Airport (DXB) and London Gatwick Airport (LGW) on the EK69/EK70 itineraries. The new flights will be operated by its state-of-the-art Airbus A350-900 aircraft.
The airline’s new addition will add another daily itinerary to an already busy market between the Middle East and London, especially flights from the three international Gulf hubs: Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport (AUH), Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH), and DXB. Emirates alone will have 12 daily flights between DXB and London, including LGW, London Heathrow Airport (LHR), and London Stansted Airport (STN), while Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways’ current schedules result in up to 26 daily departures from either AUH, DOH, or DXB to LGW, LHR, or STN in February 2026.
In its announcement, Emirates said that the new service will be timed to be the last flight of the day between the two cities in both directions. Flight EK69 leaves DXB at 17:05 local time (UTC +4), arrives at LGW at 20:50 (UTC +0), while the return departure is scheduled to take off from LGW at 23:55 and land at DXB at 11:00.
“For those traveling to Dubai, the service provides the ideal arrival time for customers to check in to their hotels and get a head start on their Dubai activities,” Emirates said, adding that for those leaving the city, the timings enable travelers to make the most of their time in Dubai before returning to London just before 21:00.
The airline’s A350-900s flying to LGW will be configured with a premium-heavy layout featuring 32 business class, 28 premium economy, and 238 economy class seats. In comparison, its other A350-900s welcome up to 32 business, 21 premium economy, and 259 economy class passengers.
According to Airport Coordination Limited (ACL), the United Kingdom-based company that oversees slots at multiple airports worldwide, including LHR and LGW, Emirates requested, and received, 307 new slots for the upcoming winter season, which will begin on October 26, 2025. ACL’s records also showed that Emirates asked for 1,320 slots at LHR during the International Air Transport Association (IATA) winter 2025/206 season, receiving none.
However, Emirates is not the only airline out of the Middle East’s big three – with the others being Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways – that have announced planned growth on flights to London. When the latter, based at DOH, announced its winter schedule on July 30, it said that it would grow the number of daily departures from the Qatari capital to LHR from eight to 10.
While Qatar Airways had requested 354 additional slots at LHR for the upcoming winter season, receiving only two, during the previous season, it had acquired slots for two daily flights at the British capital’s busiest airport from Romania’s TAROM, according to ACL.
The airline also asked for 176 slots at LGW, with ACL granting Qatar Airways 100% of the requested slots at London’s second busiest airport. Currently, the Qatari carrier has a double-daily flight to LGW, flight QR327 and QR329.
According to data from the aviation analytics company Cirium’s Diio Mi airline planning tool, the three Middle East carriers have scheduled 166 weekly departures from their respective hubs to the three airports in London in February 2026. The number does not include Emirates’ latest addition, flight EK69/70, which would take the total to 173, or up to 26 per day, once the A350-900 flights are online.
The number also excludes British Airways’ services to AUH, DOH, and DXB, Virgin Atlantic’s daily flights to Dubai, or Royal Brunei Airlines’ one-stop itinerary from Brunei International Airport (BWN) to LHR via DXB. Adding these flights would result in up to 33 daily departures from Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Dubai to the trio of airports in London, or 225 per week in February 2026, per the latest schedules on Cirium’s Diio Mi.
Then, there is the rising competition in other Gulf countries, namely Saudi Arabia, as well as Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman. Factoring in Bahrain Air, Kuwait Air, Oman Air, Saudia’s services, February 2026 should see at least 323 weekly departures from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to LGW, LHR, and STN.
Additional changes on flights between the GCC and London do not end there. In a filing on July 30, ACL indicated that British Airways had transferred 14 weekly slots, enough for double-daily one-way departures, to the Saudi Arabian start-up Riyadh Air starting with the upcoming winter 2025/2026 season. The transfer was classified as a ‘remedy,’ presumably due to previous concerns raised by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
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