Emirates off to a flying start Emirates district manager for South Australia Paul Jury. GLOBAL airline Emirates says it has cornered a significant share of the state's international passenger market in its first year of operation. More than 155,000 passengers have travelled between Adelaide and Dubai since the airline launched last year, Emirates and the South Australian Tourism Commission will announce today. The airline's cautious punt on the market a year ago - when it offered four flights per week and upgraded to daily services from February - has paid off more than expected, said Paul Jury, Emirates district manager for South Australia. With a new operation and the state's largest aircraft, you generally expect to do about 50 per cent of the capacity. We have been averaging 80 per cent. This is without going down the 'cheap, cheap, cheap' track simply because we are a full-service airline and we just can't do it. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and India were some of the top final passenger destinations driven by the student population, he said. In addition to passenger numbers, exports from South Australia performed strongly with Emirates SkyCargo carrying more than 2.5 million kilos to key markets in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and New Zealand. Our aircraft can carry up to 20 tonnes of freight per flight and we've seen a significant trend in the export of pharmaceuticals, chilled meat and seafood, wine, perishables, mining and communications equipment and skin care products. "In fact we have had to truck some of the SA load interstate to Melbourne because of the greater capacity there," Mr Jury said. Emirates' 360-seat Boeing 777-300ER is the largest passenger aircraft to service South Australia and provides 2,520 seats per week each way between Adelaide and Dubai. Adelaide has so far led Emirates' other interstate markets in early-bird ticket sales into 2014, indicating another successful year ahead. Mr Jury said the airline would, however, still wait and watch on introducing more daily flights or a new A380. Emirates currently services three daily flights from Melbourne, Sydney and Perth and two out of Brisbane. We are sticking to the daily flights for now, but who knows once the market is established and it also depends on delivery of aircraft. We have about 100 aircraft on order and new destinations are opening up rapidly. Adelaide's ongoing infrastructure upgrades and hotels construction would offer more opportunities to scale up services. In addition, Emirates is the official flight partner for the world's premier cycling conference Velo-City being hosted by Adelaide in May 2014, which is expected to attract about 1000 delegates from Europe - a market well-serviced by Emirates. Singapore Airlines is currently the market leader in SA in terms of on-offer international capacity, offering 3420 weekly seats, followed by Emirates with 2,520 seats and Malaysian Airlines with just over 2000 seats, South Australian Tourism Commission data shows. Mr Jury said the support from the tourism and trade agencies and the South Australian government had delivered a positive start to the airline as well as promote Adelaide on an international scale. Emirates offers one-stop services to 133 destinations worldwide and more through its alliance with Qantas for some European and Asian destinations. Tourism Minister Leon Bignell said the arrival of Emirates had provided a significant boost to tourism in South Australia. Emirates' vast network of destinations via Dubai has brought the world to Adelaide and Adelaide to the world. Adelaide Airport is currently the fastest growing Australian capital city airport for international travel, up 14.8 per cent growth over the prior year. International capacity grew by more than 27 per cent following the introduction of Emirates flights and additional services from existing carriers Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines. However, there is room for more growth with around 40 to 50 per cent of Adelaide passengers travelling internationally doing so via other airports.