Dubai’s Emirates sees demand returning on US routes

Emirates, the Middle East’s largest airline, is seeing a return in demand on routes to the United States that it had started to retreat from in May, President Tim Clark said on Wednesday.

Emirates announced in April it would cut flights on five US routes from May, blaming travel restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration for softening demand.

“The markets are coming back to us. I’m watching every day to see whether we can put back the Boston’s and Seattle’s because the seat factors are in the low 90s,” Clark told reporters at the Paris Airshow, referring to an industry measure on the proportion of seats filled in planes.

“I’m hoping that the trauma of a few months ago in March is starting to even out. I’m hoping we can get operations back to where they were.”