Flying emirates is the in thing today. With the discovery of petrol and oil in the 1970s, middle east embarked upon the feat of re-establishing its states. One such country is the UAE with states like Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Today Emirates is a brand name, but it is also one of the youngest airlines we have today, beginning in just 1985. The initial flights of the emirates airline were to Karachi, Pakistan, and Delhi, India through 2 aircrafts leased from PIA, Pakistan. This year Emirates has reported a 62 % increase in profits from last year, a total of US$1.37 billion. The group based in dubai employs over 20000. It has won the airline of the year award twice.
It is 4th largest airline to fly maximum international passenger-km, and 7th largest airline in carrying international passengers. The emirates airlines have no inland flights within dubai, a fleet of 115 in air, 243 on way and 89 destinations. The growth has been double every 3.5 years until 1996, and every 4 years after that. The profit has never been less than a 20%, which is a record in itself.
Unlike other airlines, the emirates airline was smart enough to realize the need of the hour and was amongst the few airlines to introduce in house entertainment. It has also been the recipient of best in-house entertainment in the year 2006. Not only this, it was also amongst the first airlines to offer in house in flight internet and the 2nd airline to offer broadcast of international tv. The work done on the development of the in-house entertainment by the emirates airlines has indeed been commendable. As a collaboration with Apple, it is also offering docks for ipod, offering recharging as well as in-house music via ipod. If it is so high and mighty in all these arenas, how can it miss on a frequent flyer program? Of course it has one, called sky on wards.
Emirates will also be embarking upon something new, in acquiring the air space of Russia, in order to cut down the distance to west coast US. Until now, the emirates airline has not ventured into creating a major hub, but the authority to venture more flights on from Singapore towards australia will eventually be converted into a major hub.
Not many airlines have a first class like that of the emirates. The seat can be converted into a full bed, and has privacy doors as well as a mini bar and a coat rack, an electric massage option as well as a private 17 inches wide screen in addition to the other in house entertainment options. All in all, there are more than 1200 options offered on the emirates airlines.
The competitors of the emirates are finding it hard to keep up in the race since they are more costly, and emirates routes offer to skip many touch downs at their hub airports. The Emirates group over all is doing really well for itself and this shows in the growth of the airline as well. The emirates group has investments in their newspapers, press, media, shopping festivals as well as sports clubs. The emirates airline also operates cargo freight carriers, and has been reported as the 10th largest airlines in 2007 to carry maximum weight on international routes. It also carried 21% more passengers this year, than last.
All of this is indeed too much for a nation as young as UAE and an airline as young as the emirates. This is the reason why it has quite a few rivals not only in the airline arena but other industries as well.
However in the end, the major reason of continuous profits is the quality of service as well as the experience aboard. The emirates airline has left no stone unturned to make that flying experience memorable to the extent of retaking it again and again and again.
