Emirates marks key milestones in 2015 its 30th year of operations
Emirates marks key milestones in 2015, its 30th year of operationsEmirates, the world’s largest international airline, will conclude another year of growth underscored by standout milestones across its fleet, network, and customer experience initiatives. Its growing business footprint also delivered increasing positive impact on the economies and communities it serves.Since January 2015, the airline has carried over 51.3 million passengers, which represented 9% more passengers during the same period in the previous calendar year.Emirates operated around 3,600 flights on average per week, or over 186,000 flights in 2015, travelling more than 824 million kilometres around the globe, which is the distance equivalent of more than 1,000 trips to the moon and back. The airline served over 57 million meals on its flights departing Dubai*, and handled over 35 million pieces of baggage in Dubai alone.Remarking on this year’s accomplishments, Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “2015 has been one of considerable growth for Emirates as we continued to steer our course despite the headwinds of regional conflict, unfavourable currency impact, and shaky business and consumer confidence in many global markets. Emirates has come out strong, as our mindset, combined with our fleet and network strategy has enabled us to absorb shocks and maximise opportunities.Through our 30 years of operation to date, Emirates has always stayed focussed on its core strategies: an efficient fleet and operations that capitalise on Dubai’s strategic location and infrastructure; an excellent product and service proposition for our customers; and recruiting and retaining the best talent from around the world. We will continue to build on these strengths, even as we drive ourselves to achieve new goals and set new standards for ourselves and the industry.”Connecting the world to, and through DubaiThe airline expanded its network to 150 destinations in 2015, with the addition of six new passenger destinations: Bali, Multan, Orlando, Mashhad, Bologna and Sabiha Gokcen in Istanbul; and three cargo-only destinations in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Columbus (USA) and Ciudad del Este, (Paraguay). In addition, Emirates uplifted frequencies and upgraded capacity to numerous points across its network.In August, Emirates announced plans to launch services to Panama City, beginning 1st February 2016. The new service will be the longest non-stop flight in the world (17 hours 35 minutes) and will be Emirates’ first gateway destination in Central America.In 2015, Emirates expanded the number of cities served by its flagship A380 aircraft to 36. Emirates brought A380 services to Perth, Dusseldorf, Madrid and Copenhagen, and layered on more A380 services to the schedules of nine other existing points spanning east to west, to highly positive customer feedback. During the year, Emirates also led one-off A380 services to seven destinations: Prague, Taipei, Brussels, Sao Paulo, Cologne, Manama and Doha.Economic contributionEmirates continues to have an important positive impact on the economies of the markets it serves – through the provision of international air transport links that facilitate trade and tourism flows, direct employment through its growing business, and indirect employment through the aviation supply chain and the other industries reliant on commercial air transport.In 2015, this effect was felt again through the aviation supply chain when Emirates announced a historic US$9.2 billion (€8.7 billion) deal with Rolls-Royce for Trent 900 engines to power 50 of its A380 aircraft, and a long-term TotalCare package. The deal was the largest ever for Rolls-Royce, and one of the largest ever export orders for a UK-based company.In November, Emirates signed a US$16 billion OnPoint solution agreement with GE Aviation for the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of the GE9X engines that will power the airline’s fleet of 150 Boeing 777X aircraft. Spanning 12 years, the deal is Emirates’ largest engine MRO contract to date, and also GE Aviation’s largest ever commercial jet engine award from an airline.In March, a report by Frontier Economics was released, estimating that Emirates contributed €6.8 billion to the economies of European Union countries in 2013 and 2014, supporting more than 85,000 jobs. Frontier also analysed European international air connectivity and concluded that Emirates provides 220 unique air connections that are not offered by any other airline or alliance.In November, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in India released the results of an economic impact study that measured Emirates’ contribution to the Indian economy. NCAER estimated that Emirates’ operations contributed over US$848 million annually to India’s GDP, supporting over 86,000 Indian jobs and generating almost US$1.7 billion in Foreign Exchange Earnings. Fly EmiratesSource = Emirates