Passion for Aviation - Emirates Airlines

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. 

The Wall Street Journal article on Emirates airline has been published for a while but it is still drawing interest and comments. Despite the economic downturn the UAE-owned airline is adding to its fleet but there are some special features that have attracted the 10,000 flight attendants to this company.
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. 

Passion for Aviation - Air India

Some might wonder, where did I get this passion for aviation, and this sudden love for aircrafts and the sort. Well the story goes way back when I was really young. Initially, I flew before I learnt to walk. My mum used to fly a lot when I was in her womb and they say that the baby learns a lot while in the mother’s womb. Getting back on track, I loved to fly. I loved to look at the different Boeings, Airbus, CRJ aircrafts – to name a few. 

Also what I loved and admired was the different types of service offered on different airlines. As I have already written a bit about it and maybe more on the airline service, I will not indulge about that in this post. The number one thing that did fascinate me was how aircrafts flew, how airlines were run and until now maybe I am not able to pinpoint the exact formula on how airlines run but there are certain things that I have picked up on by reading extensively on airlines.

I am no expert but certain things I know about the business and would like to pick on one airline which is close to my heart – Air India/Indian Airlines. How does such a nice airline in the 1980s go all wrong? Here I am going to try to analyze what went wrong, what could have been done right and maybe something that might be out of their control. Certain statements or recommendations I make might not make sense or you might think that they are made without doing any research but as I said, I am no expert on this but its just how I feel about the issue. 

First and foremost, the airline is horribly overstaffed. As any government body/airline, it has managed to employee a whole load of staff which is not really needed but they have to keep them until their retirement age because of the labor unions that plagues India. Air India is well-known for its “aunties” onboard. Air India’s cabin crew are of older age range, have gone out of shape and at times do not fit through the cabin aisles but they are still working on the aircraft because of the unions. They are not allowed to throw out cabin crew on the basis of their looks, age, weight etc. How much of a risk it is during and emergency, is anyone’s guess. In the middle the airline managed to ground the crew that were unfit or out of shape, but it didn’t last long. The airline loses a lot of money on employee costs because a good, well managed airline always tries to reduce its labor costs and on average for one flight an airline should have anywhere between 24 and 28 staff (this includes check-in agents, baggage handlers, ground crew, engineering crew, cabin crew and pilots) but Air India manages its business with about 36 to 40 staff per flight, which is overstaffing.

Next would be its flight routing, we talk about optimal utilization of aircraft and such. They do utilize their aircrafts but there are certain key areas that are missed. Before Air India and Indian Airlines were two separate entities, but now since they have joined into one airline, they have to think about re-working their schedules. Air India still operates its wide bodied international aircraft (like the 777 and 747) on domestic routes that depart at ungodly hours after 12 am and before 6am. Their wide bodied aircraft seem to spend more ground time at out stations than in Delhi or Mumbai. Passengers from New York bound for Ahmadabad have to connect in Mumbai or Delhi, ultimately operated by the same aircraft but they would arrive into Mumbai or Delhi at say 3am and connect at 4am or 5am. This needs to be though through and maybe offer a proper overnight flight from New York coming into Mumbai or Delhi at 6am then connect these passengers into Indian Airline’s morning departure bank onto a vast network of cities. The Indian market is big enough to sustain a full load of connections from New York, Los Angeles, London Heathrow etc at either Mumbai or Delhi. This was just one example, there are a lot more flights that are operated like this. 

Air India’s network operations and flight times need to change to allow connections via Mumbai and Delhi. They would be able to capture the Middle East market to connect onto Indian domestic destinations and also onwards into Asia to cities like Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, Singapore, Kuala Lampur etc. Jet Airways was quick enough to capture this market from the middle east by offering competitive rates agains Emirates, Qatar Airways, Gulf Air etc. Usually passengers travelling from the home cities of these big middle eastern carriers are not offered good ticket prices but Air India could have exploited this in a good way. 

Certain analyst say that the merging of the two carriers, Air India and Indian Airlines, was one of the biggest boon to the company, and some say it wasn’t a good move. I would say, it was the smartest move made simply because costs can be cut, marketing would become common, sales would be commons, offices combined. Any logical person would have said that this was the strategy behind the merger.  Until now I am yet to see a full logical cost saving measure to be taken, all they have done yet was the repainting of the aircraft (which has added to the expenditure), the flight codes still remain as IC and AI, certain cities (especially in India) still operate an Air India and Indian Airlines office separately, uniforms are different all around, including those of the ground staff. Air India Express adds yet another liability to the overheads of the company. 

Air India express was created to completed in the gulf market with the low cost carriers. It has quickly gained a market share in the gulf markets which has a lot of labor workers who can not afford the full service carries’ prices. But what has gone wrong with regards to its operations is the operation of Indian Airlines flights, Air India flights, and Air India flights operating on the same routing. In Dubai, for example, on any one day you will find a Dubai – Mumbai flight operated by Air India’s wide body aircraft, Indian Airline’s (Now Air India)’s  narrow bodied aircraft – A321 and Air India’s B737. You have started competing and working as your own rival in the same market. 

Certain good things about the airline is the rigorous training and service enhancement has really changed the cabin crew’s attitudes and service levels. The crew genuinely offer good service and a friendly approach to each and every passenger. It has also utilized the maximum out of the space offered in Delhi and Mumbai Airports by starting their own lounges to offer a better experience to the first and business class passengers. They have recently started upgrading their fleet of aircrafts by installing a new hard product in first, business and economy class. Personal TV screens are gradually being added, all this might make it competitive in the international market but it might be a bit too late now. 

Another aspect of its operations is the concentrated services. The gulf market has been its bread and butter for years. The passenger on this rout has always being low yield but the loads have been good enough to warrant point to point service to the different gulf cities. The airline offers a brilliant connection from secondary cities like Ahmadabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Amritsar, Calicut, Trivandrum etc directly to gulf cities of Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Riyadh, Jeddah etc. The demand from these secondary cities to the US or Europe is not enough to warrant a direct flight. They have to start timing their domestic IC operations in a way where the passengers can easily connect from the secondary domestic market to the direct services to Europe/Americas or even South East Asia via Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkotta, Bengaluru or Chennai. Offering multiple connections to the same route which might not have a demand might not be smart move, they need to pull out the extra rotations and start utilizing their aircrafts to offer seamless connections via its hubs. 

Another option that they need to explore the option for international to international connection without having any hassles of clearing immigrations or customs. Once this has been achieved they would make money by taking a slice back from Emirates or Qatar or even Etihad Airways. Another change they might need to make is the fleet of aircraft that are aging needs to change. They need to start ordering for the future instead of ordering last minute then just leasing already aging aircraft to operate with a different product that their own. This leasing of aircraft in the last minute was evident when their Boeing 747-400s started aging and they needed a replacement to operate to the US and Europe and they had to lease aircraft from United Airlines, which had the seats and interiors of the US carrier. Not at par with what Air India offered on its own aircraft especially for economy class passengers, where you get a great generous seat pitch of 34" on the wide body aircraft and this aircraft offered only a mere 31"

What I like most about their paint job on the aircraft are the little jahrokas (rajesthani style windows) made on every window and of course the age old maharaja as the mascot of the airline. The airline had its peak in glory, glamour and finance during the olden days when flying Air India meant you were in a luxurious cruise. Air India's food and catering is still number one as it really brings out the different food from India and its different states. It caters to a wide range of taste buds and success in offering some of the best variety onboard. Business and First class passengers are still entitled to a trolley service, where they can chose a mixture of food and desserts, its like a mobile buffet counter. 

This must have probably made a heavy read for most but I hope I made sense of what I was trying to say at some point in the article. Air India is a carrier with a definitive advantage, but it has not been exploited as much, after all it serves a nation that has a population which is way over a billion plus the non-resident Indians (NRIs) and persons of Indian origin (POI).

Airline Service

While making a booking, you often wonder, which airline should I book with? Is it in my budget? Should I pay for the full service airline? Does it fit my schedule? And a ton of other questions flow into your mind while making that booking, be it for business or just for leisure. One important question might also be, should I book myself into Coach/Economy class or spurge that hard earned money for a Business class seat?

A lot has changed over the years in air travel. Today’s customer, like you and me, are more price sensitive. If the company is paying, the company’s travel co-ordinator/HR works with a very low travel budget. Gone are the days that companies would spend a fortune for your seat in business class. They would book you into a full service economy class seat, and understandably so, because of the recession, or the dropping business levels.

Again, with regards to service, in this article, its all a personal opinion and what I have experienced while travelling with different airlines over the years. I was actually flying before I learnt how to walk, and at that time we used to fly with the Golden Eagle – Gulf Air, the national airline of UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, at that time. It was also known for a good level of service during those days. As time passed service slipped, standards dropped and the hard product became stagnant and old. People in the gulf region were introduced to Emirates Airlines in 1985 (the year I was born). Emirates pledged to bring in a new era in airline service. Well, for me, after flying with Emirates so many times, it has no consistency what-so-ever, and no standardized product across its fleet. It makes money by simply dumping seats into any market by using its wide bodied jets, and lowering the prices to fill these seats up. Similar to what hotels do, if they have rooms available at the end of the night, they would sell it to the walk-in customer at whatever price possible in order to fill up the rooms, because once the night is passed the revenue is lost anyways, and they still would have to pay for the housekeeping, electricity etc.

Emirates has grown too big too fast, for its own good. Somewhere down the line the level of service was lost. What Emirates used to stand for is also lost. Typically on a Boeing 777 majority of the International carriers would have a 9 abreast (3-3-3) in economy class, Emirates chooses to pack in passengers like sardine in a 10 abreast seating (3-4-3) across the aisle. Their catering in economy and business used to be good, now that has also faced the cost cutting axe. Speaking of business class, its seats across its different aircrafts (A340-500,B777-200,B777-200LR,B777-300 & A380) are all different. There is no consistency in its business class seats, some have sleeparettes, some flat beds, some cradle seats.  But one thing worth mentioning here is their incredible ICE entertainment system. I do bow down to their entertainment system as it kept me really occupied for the long haul New York to Dubai flights. Also their policy of providing you with unlimited alcohol is somewhat of a winner.  Their crew have lost the touch of service, arrogance and above all attitude have kicked into their crew. Again as I said, mostly a hit or a miss service with Emirates now a days.  I would echo the same opinion about Qatar Airways, whilst the service might be marginally better than Emirates, they are headed down the same road of quick expansion with losing grip on the service.

Asian carriers like Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines are know for their service levels, but its also worth mentioning that these airlines have very robotic service. Their crew do exactly what they are there for, service. Noting more, nothing less. I guess it also comes with the culture. They would not stop and have a chat with you on long haul flight. Their products are also pretty standard across all their fleets. Singapore Airlines, takes the cake in the product department. They have some pretty bold seats out there. They serve more as a premium carrier, even in economy. Emirates, on the other hand, just puts in as many seats as possible in ALL classes of travel. Singapore airline’s Singapore Girls have the fair and have poise of the 1980s era cabin crew, which brings back the romance of travel.

Indian carriers have a very good level of service, I’m not just saying that because I am from India, but you need to experience it yourself. Especially after the deregulation of the airline industry, there have been a wave of private carriers that have brought a level of service that was previously unknown in the Indian market. With this, even the government airline Air India started pulling up its socks and revamped the service. Jet Airways still leads the pack in terms of service provided on the ground as well as off the ground, equally worth mentioning was the service on Kingfisher Airlines, which would go to the level of even polishing your shoes in their KingfisherFirst (Business) cabin. Their seats are different on their short haul and long haul fleet, but their food and drinks service really leaves you impressed. One down side, for all Indian carriers, is their ground service and airport facilities, majority of them don’t have their own lounge facilities or transit facilities at the airports, whilst international airlines like Emirates, British Airways have managed to open up their own lounges in Indian Airports.

Delta, American Airlines, Northwest (now Delta), United, Continental Airlines (now United) all have a similar service level. Whilst travelling domestically within the US you feel like its just another Greyhound bus service on the aircraft, with nothing given to you for free, even though these are full service carriers, and if they do, it would be of miniscule portion sizes. One of the major complaints with these carriers is that their service is really really bland. They tend to just be there on the aircraft for your safety, noting more. This includes business class seats. The airport lounges are a far cry from what you would expect in a business or first class lounge of an international carrier. They don’t serve free alcoholic beverages, food is there, in the form of snacks like pretzels, cereals etcs. All this is done in the name of “cost cutting” and “avoiding bankruptcy”. The American consumer/passenger doesn’t really have a choice as all the airlines are doing the same, so you got to travel with one of them and pay a hefty ticket price for nothing.

This was a very broad comparison about the service of airlines that I have mostly tired and tested. I agree I am no expert at making comments about airlines, but just felt like penning down the analysis I have had with a few airlines that I have flown. A lot more airlines left to be tested out. I have not included lowcost carriers, because its not fair to compare them with their full service counter parts. Low cost carriers I have tired are flydubai, indigo, spicejet, Jet Blue, southwest. And the worst out of the lost probably was spiceJet. 

And before you fly the next time - checkout Seat Guru, to chose the best seat for your flight. www.seatguru.com

Airline Economy Seats Chart

	Seat Pitch	Seat Width	Seat Recline
	32”	19.7“	32”
	32“	17.5”	6”
	32”	19-20”	6-8”
	32“	17.5”	n/a
	31-32”	17.2”	6 degrees
	32”	17.75”	15 degrees
	31“	17.5”	n/a
	34”	17”	32 degrees
	31-35”	17-18”	5”