Emirates celebrates Diwali with Indian treats for fliers

Emirates is celebrating Diwali by serving Indian sweets and savouries to its passengers on board its flights departing and travelling to India till October 31, the airline said on Friday. "Passengers flying in our aircraft in all classes are treated with Indian sweets and savouries for a week (October 25-31) to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights," the Dubai-based airline said in a statement here.

Passengers in first and business classes will be offered dry fruit 'Tribhuj' with 'motichoor laddu' and those in the economy class will be served 'motichoor laddu' garnished with silver leaf and pistachio. "At our airport lounges in Dubai, Delhi, Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, frequent fliers and first/business class passengers will be treated with festival dishes on October 27," said the statement.

At the airline's lounge in Delhi, passengers will be presented an assortment of cashew sweets with 'motichoor rabdi' topped with pistachio. At its Dubai airport lounge, the airline fliers will be served mini 'dal kachoris' and mini 'Punjabi samosa', with 'angoori rabdi' and 'motichoor laddu' as dessert. 'Jalebi' with 'barfi' and popular snack 'nankhati' will be offered to the passengers at the airline's Cape Town and Johannesburg airports.

"Biryani rice with fried raisins and nuts will be served to our passengers at the Kuala Lumpur airport lounge," added the statement. "Emirates connects and embraces diverse global cultures in recognition of the role that air transport plays in bridging communities and fostering understanding," said the statement.

The airline connects nine Indian cities - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Thiruvananthapuram - through 170 weekly flights. The Emirates employs 13,707 Indians, accounting for 21 per cent of its workforce and flies to 159 destinations in 86 countries the world over.