Emirates Airlines is probably one of the most well know airlines around the world. It was started in 1985 and has every since just expanded in all continents. Emirates, has grown with a precise objective in mind. They have made Dubai a global hub for connections from east to the west and back. This was also fueled by the unprecedented growth of the city state of Dubai. With modest beginnings, Emirates had launched flights to Karachi with its single Boeing 727 which was leased from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in 1985. Emirates was one of the first airlines to introduce seat back, individual TV screens for each passenger in First, Business and Economy class. They had a catering team which was of global standards. The city state had slowly pulled out of Gulf Air, which was then the official carrier for the country. For the first flight, the airline employed 80 staff to act as incognito, undercover passengers as the sales for the maiden flight from Dubai to Karachi didn't sell enough seats.
Without looking back, Emirates just kept on expanding, but with this expansion the service was lost. It was known to have high standards of service from its cabin crew, which now has been lost somewhere in the expansion. Emirates have the latest in technology onboard, but the hard product in terms of seats across all cabins differs widely from aircraft to aircraft. This makes it difficult to ascertain if you will be flying in a flat bed or a cradle seat when you have bought a full fare business class or first class ticket with Emirates.
Emirates has created a very nice hub and spoke concept, they have a number of advantages over the traditional carriers like British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Air France, Lufthansa etc. Emirates has a low labor cost expense because the pay is generally higher in terms of money but the extras that the company needs to provide its employees is not mandated by any authority unlike for British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air France etc.
Emirates has a advantage of being positioned in the middle of the east and west bound traffic. Its location has brought a big advantage for it to be able to create a hub and spoke concept, further fuelled by the Dubai Government’s aim at becoming a well class city, so they have supported the airline for tourism, airport facilities and other concessions. Essentially, Dubai is a tax free economy which also works in favor of the airline.
Dubai airport is a 24 hour operation facility, which allows the airline to make a couple of arrival and departure banks, with no noise restrictions in place. This is a disadvantage to the traditional European carriers. Emirates has three visible arrival and departure banks. The day’s first arrivals happen at 6am and the first departure bank (probably the biggest) take place around 9am. The second set of arrivals comes in around 11pm and the departure bank at 1am. Further and afternoon bank has started evolving with most Indian sub-continent flights departing around the afternoon time.
Emirates is also able to provide a world class airport experience as it has a low labor cost, it is able to employ cheap labor to work at the airports as check-in agents, baggage handlers, airport helpers etc. It operates a wide number of lounges in its network which allows to cut costs of paying outstation lounges in the long run.
Emirates has created cut throat competition in the Europe to Australia, Europe to Indian Sub Continent, Europe to South East Asia and Americas to Indian Subcontinent market. It offers fares which are much lower than the traditional carriers. One of the concept it applies is only using wide bodied aircraft to any route that they operate. This creates a surplus of seats, and allows the airline to reduce the fares to fill those seats.
Emirates is the largest customer for the A380 aircraft, which further pushes its notion to dump excess capacity into all markets to be able to lower the prices. Emirates, by no means is a boutique carrier in any of its classes. Singapore Airlines maintains its exclusive service and boutique airline status while Emirates keeps on adding seats and lowering the fare, making it a mass transport airline. You get what you pay for. Emirates is one of the first airlines to introduce a 3-4-3 seating across the B777 while the industry standard was 3-3-3. Adding one extra seat on every row further reduced the seat width and the aisle size, which makes it difficult for the crew to get around with their trolleys, and they have to serve more passengers per aircraft than their counterparts in British Airways or Air France or even Singapore Airlines. Emirates Business class product also has a 2-3-2 seating arrangement across the aisle, while the industry average is 2-2-2 to give more privacy and comfort to the passengers who are pay well into the 5 figure sum for their seats.
Here is a brief summary of their employment guidelines:
* Hire attractive looking stewards
* Emirates draws young recruits (average age is 26 but by comparison, 12% of all US flight attendants are under 30)
* Emirates prefers women to men: 75% of total flight crew must be female
* Train them in beauty and etiquette
* Regular manicures and facials for men and women
* Women must retouch lips with bright red lipstick every 15 minutes
* Keep your weight down
* No pregnancy policy for unwed women
* Innocuous onboard flirting is condoned (accepting business cards and phone numbers is OK)
* No alcohol to be consumed in the 12 hours before a flight
* Smoking and eating in uniform are prohibited
* Pay is less than other airlines but Emirates offers free accommodation and transport to and from work.
from he article of:
Farnaz Fassihi, Rich Dubai Flirts with Hard Times but Its Airline is Still Flying High, Wall Street Journal.
Emirates Catering was one of the best until recently when it also came under the axe due to financial constraints and in order to still stay profitable. It cut back on the portion sizes beginning from First class till Economy class. Service has also dropped drastically over the years, yet it is still a hit or a miss service you would expect from Emirates. The standard protocols are always followed but there is that human touch which is missing. The crew are most of the time (again I am generalizing) are too often just snotty.
I always find Emirates ticket fares to be more expensive when flying from Dubai than flying from any other out station. Emirates charges a bomb if your flying out from Dubai or Kuwait or Bahrain and to connect via Dubai, especially if the home country airline is weak. Emirates, a few years back had bought a stake in Sri Lankan Airlines, and eventually after the contract term it had to leave the airline, it was able to revamp the airline from Air Lanka and make it a good carrier. Sri Lankan, was recently able to start services from Colombo to Zurich and Manila but now in the next few months has to close the routes as Emirates drastically increased its services to Colombo and dropped the rates for Colombo to Zurich (via Dubai) and Colombo to Milan (via Dubai).
Emirates is large enough to push out the small players from the market. It had applied for service right from Sydney and Auckland to west coast USA as there is a big market for that route but the Australian and New Zealand government had stopped them from using the third party rights for these routes as it would take away the market share from Qantas and Air New Zealand. Emirates has established a huge connectivity from Sydney and from Auckland to Dubai and also between the cities.
Emirates has also strategically started investing heavily in sports teams and sports stadiums. This gives them a huge marketing ground all over the world. They sponsor only the biggest names, biggest sports and the biggest teams. They have also opened their own stadium in Arsenal. Emirates has made its presence felt all over the world by marketing and advertising. It also holds regular road shows in different continents to increase its presence. One of the strategies is doing a road show months before they launch a new destination in that market. This makes it easy for them to fill up the flights from day 1.
Emirates also has the advantage of operating one of the world’s youngest fleet of aircrafts, which makes the maintenance and the up keep of the aircraft cheaper, as they buy only new airframes. A lot of support is received from Boeing and Airbus in terms of special bulk discounts when ordering aircraft, and also delivery slots.
As it keeps on adding aircrafts, more routes are opened up, more A380 aircraft keep on entering service, only time will tell how global would this airline would become and how its presence would pressure the traditional carriers, small home carriers to change their strategies or shut shop all together. Its major key market is the Indian sub-continent, in which it is willing to invest, after the recent opening up of investment into the loss making Kingfisher Airlines. Lets see how big they get or do they drop all together.
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