Winning ticket

zoom

zoom

The Dubai to London flight route is serviced by four major airlines. First Class assesses which firm really is the greatest of them all.

Never has there been greater choice for the business traveler flying from Dubai to London. Two years ago, Virgin Atlantic joined Emirates Airline and British Airways as the third airline offering direct flights between the cities. And late last year, business-class only firm Silverjet became the fourth.

So the big question is, who should you fly with?

Over the course of four weeks this year, First Class sent a reporter to sample the business class service on all four airlines. We broke down the journey into ten sections - all the way from getting to the airport in Dubai to getting back to the airport in London.

Each section was scored out of ten - to reveal which airline, in our view, provides the best service. Our results show that Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic has kept its promise to change the face of air travel between London and Dubai.

Virgin came out top, with a remarkable 87% score. What's more, Virgin Atlantic was also the outright winner in four of the ten categories.

And second place was closely contested between BA and Emirates, with BA just edging out Emirates by 1%. But struggling in fourth place - it has only been in service for five months - is the latest carrier on this route, Silverjet.

Journey to airport

Emirates is the winner by quite some distance. Chauffer service comes as standard with a business class ticket. The cars are immaculate and punctual. It simply has no competition in this category. Virgin Atlantic does offer driving services but, quality-wise, it is behind Emirates.

We have scored BA in third place. It doesn't offer any such service, however, getting to Dubai Airport from anywhere in the emirate is a relatively straightforward journey.

Bottom of the pile, scoring zero, is Silverjet. Its chauffer services cost a great deal extra on the ticket. But worst of all, there are no parking facilities at the private terminal that Silverjet uses.

This is ludicrous, with several passengers complaining they have had there cars towed away after parking at the airport. It needs to sort out this mess pretty soon.

Virgin Atlantic - 7/10

Emirates Airline - 9/10

British Airways - 9/10

Silverjet - 0/10

Print | Email | Discuss this article |

USER COMMENTS (0 COMMENTS)

POST A COMMENT

CLICK HERE TO POST A COMMENT

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Security Code *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.