At a recent media roundtable in Mumbai, Essa Sulaiman Ahmad, Vice President, India and Nepal, Emirates revealed that the airline has used its new bilateral to upgrade their fleet and in-flight services on the India routes. “In February, we had a round of negotiations with the government and got our bilateral rights, which meant an increase of 3779 seats. We used these while upgrading our fleet, during which we replaced our A330 aircraft with 777 and 777 with A380. The number of flights per week (185 flights to 10 destinations), however, have remained the same,” he said.
The focus of the airline, Ahmad mentioned, was on innovation, such as the shower and spa on board, business class lounge, wifi and mobile services on board, to name a few, in addition to family services. In India the airline has introduced its own chauffer service for premium traffic from a couple of destinations.
The airline recently received their 53rd A380 aircraft, and now operates a total of 128 aircraft across 145 new destinations in 83 countries. The airline is currently the largest operator of the A380. “This is 29th year in operation and 29th destination with the A380 coincides with Mumbai,” he added.
Speaking about India, Ahmad said that the airline has witnessed very good acceptance and has notched 81 per cent load factor on the routes here. “Emirates has been around for a while and India is in our DNA. Mumbai and Delhi were our first routes in the market in 1985, and India and Dubai have always had a strong relationship. For us it’s always about the product offering for our clients,” he opined.
When asked about the trends in Indian travel, Ahmad stated that, traffic-wise, Indians travel across the world. He opined that, every city, especially in India, is quite different in travel habits and end destinations, and the airline has innovated it’s flight route offerings accordingly.
“For instance, owing to the gem and stones industry in Gujarat, we introduced a triangular fare route connecting Johannesburg and Brussels with Gujarat and/or Mumbai. Furthermore, newer destinations such as Oslo, Budapest and Brussels have seen increasing traffic out of India,” he concluded.
