The Emirates story started in 1985 when it launched operations with just two aircraft. Akanksha Maker reports on its operations in India and around the world

October 25, 1985 is a memorable day for the Dubai-based airline, Emirates. This was when it began operations with just two aircraft — a leased Boeing 737 and an Airbus 300 B4.

INDIA

Around the time of its launch, Emirates started flights from its hub in Dubai to Mumbai. It now flies to nine destinations in India —  Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram — with a weekly frequency of 172 flights. The number of flights to India is the highest for Emirates in any market.

Its international capacity flying out of India forms 9.5 per cent, behind Jet Airways with 13.8 per cent and Air India with 11.2 per cent of the market share. Last year, Emirates carried 5.5 million passengers on its routes to Indian cities, totalling to 41.9 million passengers carried in the past decade. Data collected by the airline for the same period also shows that around 38 per cent of Emirates’ India passengers travelled to or from the hubs of Delhi and Mumbai, and 62 per cent travelled to or from non-hub points of India (mostly South India). This exemplifies the importance of the Dubai-based carrier across the geography of India.

The airline offers Indian passengers with unique aviation links and connectivity across its network. Out of the Indian passengers who flew Emirates last year, around 89 per cent travelled onwards to or from destinations on Emirates’ global network that are currently not served by Indian carriers.

A380 NETWORK

Globally, the airline owns a fleet of 259 wide-body aircraft that fly to 157 destinations (including 16 cargo-only points). As for its double-decker marvel, Emirates flies its A380 to 48 cities across six continents. The latest cities to join the airline’s A380 network this year are Nice, Sao Paulo and Casablanca.

Emirates is the world’s largest operator of the A380 aircraft with 96 of them in service, and a further 46 on order. This aircraft type has carried 80 million Emirates passengers since its deployment in 2008.

EXPANSION 

July saw a partnership announcement between Emirates and flydubai, which includes an expansive codeshare agreement, schedule alignment and network optimisation. While both airlines continue being managed independently, its passengers can access over 200 destinations and avail of benefits from both frequent flyer programmes.

A few months ago Emirates touched down in Croatia, launching inaugural flights between Dubai and Zagreb. It launched a second daily flight to Brussels, Belgium commenced daily flights to Hanoi, Vietnam and Phnom Penh, Cambodia and inaugurated daily operations with its A380 to Nice, France in July. This August, it added flights to Khartoum, Sudan making Dubai-Khartoum a daily service. October onwards, Emirates ramps up services to Cairo, Egypt with four additional flights.

SERVICES

Amidst aggressive route expansion and enhancement, the Dubai-based airline has also upgraded its services and facilities. The airline recently restructured its in-flight wifi offering, doubling the amount of free data for economy passengers and non-Skywards members to 20MB. Skywards is the airline’s frequent flyer programme.

Skywards’ Platinum and Gold members now get unlimited data usage throughout the flight, regardless of class of travel, while the other member tiers of Skywards get free usage only if travelling in first and business class. The carrier added that wifi services are now available on over 200 of its aircraft, “and it is a service that Emirates continues to subsidise heavily”.

The airline opened its 41st dedicated lounge at Boston Logan International Airport. The lounge welcomes Emirates’ first and business class customers as well as Platinum and Gold members of Skywards.

Keeping up its luxury quotient, Emirates has partnered with BMW Group to provide a fleet of cars for its complimentary chauffeur-driven service for business class passengers in the UAE. In other news, it stirred sufficient curiosity when it announced that it will unveil its new first class product in November. Emirates’ new first class cabin will feature six private suites laid out in a 1-1-1 configuration, compared to the existing eight private suites in a 1-2-1 layout on its existing B777 fleet. The new product will make its debut on-board its Boeing 777-300ER. Emirates will announce the destinations where the new Boeing 777-300ER is to be deployed in due course.