Emirates has said it is ready to launch daily services to Berlin and Stuttgart, committing more than 100mn EUR ($114mn) a year in operating costs, staff, airport charges and fuel, subject to approval from the German Federal Ministry of Transport, the airline confirmed on June 9 in a document seen by Emerging Travel.
The proposal revives a push the carrier has pursued for more than three decades. Emirates is limited to four German airports under the bilateral air transport agreement between Germany and the UAE, serving Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf and Hamburg. Adding Berlin and Stuttgart would require Berlin to expand those traffic rights, a step Lufthansa and the transport ministry have long resisted.
Both cities are short on long-haul links. More than 85% of Berlin Brandenburg Airport’s international connectivity sits within Europe, according to OAG schedule data, while Stuttgart, the economic centre of export-heavy Baden-Württemberg, remains similarly underserved.
Emirates president Sir Tim Clark said German businesses had asked for the connectivity and that demand was confirmed by the airline’s own data, with flights forecast to be full. He said Emirates already connects Germany to 50 destinations across Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australasia that no German carrier serves.
The carrier carried 2.36mn passengers to and from Germany in 2025, of whom 60% connected onwards through Dubai. A daily Boeing 777-300ER would also add more than 280 tonnes of weekly belly-hold cargo capacity for pharmaceuticals, machinery and electrical equipment.
A 2012 German Aerospace Centre study estimated daily services to both cities would create close to 1,000 direct and indirect jobs, a figure Emirates says remains broadly accurate. Germany logged nearly 1.2mn overnight stays from GCC visitors in 2024, worth an estimated 2.3bn EUR ($2.62bn) to the economy.
The German government is expected to decide on amending the air transport agreement this year.
Why it matters for the trade
This is a regulatory contest as much as a route announcement. Emirates is publicly pricing its commitment to pressure a ministry that has blocked expansion for thirty years, and the decision will set a precedent for other Gulf carriers eyeing wider German access. Travel sellers in Baden-Württemberg and the capital region stand to gain a widebody one-stop product to Asia and Australasia that does not exist today. The outcome hinges on Berlin, not Dubai.