Emirates Airline teases expansion into cruise industry on April Fools 

Emirates Airline celebrated April Fools Day this year by claiming it was expanding into the cruise industry.

In a post on Instagram the airline announced the faux plans with a video showing a large cruise liner in Emirates livery sailing past Dubai’s iconic Atlantis on the Palm Jumeirah.

Emirates claimed they would be setting sail with Emirates Sealine on April 1st next year. In a nod to the airline’s history, it said the first cruise would be departing Dubai to Karachi.

The city in Pakistan is important to Emirates Airline as it was the first route the airline ever launched from Dubai back in 1985.

“We’ve conquered the skies, and now, we’re charting course to take over the seas! Introducing Emirates Sealine – our ultra-luxurious cruise liner,” the airline said in its post. “Bookings open on 31 June, for its maiden voyage to Karachi on 1 April 2024.”

The airline’s followers were immediately in on the joke, but the news was well received with many claiming that an Emirates cruise line would be one of the best in the world. Emirates’ followers called on the airline to make the joke a reality.

To ensure that everyone knew the news was a joke, the airline said in a news release that the chief executive of the new maritime arm was named Captain Jack Shallow.

Emirates’ April Fools post was a reversal of Royal Caribbean’s April Fool’s joke in 2019, when it said it would be expanding into the aviation sector with an A380 called Master of the Skies.

Emirates Airline is no stranger to April Fools jokes. Last year the airline introduced Emireats, a new service that would enable users to order food from anywhere in the world and have it delivered to their door.

The year before that, Emirates leveraged the size of its A380 to claim that it was introducing onboard weddings, enabling passengers to walk down the aisle and get married at 40,000 feet.

Cruise line also got in on the fun with April Fools this year, with Royal Caribbean’s Australian branch claiming that it was introducing a purpose-built ship for the Australian market called Crikey of the Seas.

The cruise line said the new ship would have a Budgie Beach, Cricket field, BBQ’s on the balcony suites, Aussie animal sculptures and artwork, and “Aussie cocktails” including Vegemite mojito, lamington mudslide, fairy bread margarita and a pavlova spritz.

In a follow up post, Royal Caribbean said that the announcement was a joke, but said big news would be announced in the coming weeks.

Carnival Cruise Line also marked April Fools by announcing it would be introducing Pet Tenders, allowing cruise passengers to bring their dogs onboard.