The introduction of the extra flight follows increasing demand for destinations in Thailand, Australia and the Maldives via Dubai, and for the emirate itself.

Flight EK034 departs Newcastle at 21:10, arriving in Dubai at 07:25 the following day with flights now leaving Newcastle on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Emirates operates a two-class Boeing 777 on the route.

Leon McQuaid, Newcastle’s director of aviation development, said: “The re-start of a Saturday service marks an important milestone in restoring Emirates’ daily service from the Northeast’s largest airport, and shows what confidence Emirates has in the airport, our passengers and the region.”

Richard Jewsbury, Emirates UK divisional vice president added: “Scaling up operations to Newcastle will provide even better connectivity to the Northeast and we’re thrilled to be adding more capacity. 

“Bookings to Dubai and beyond have been steadily growing and our forecasts expect this trend to continue over the peak summer period and beyond.”