Emirates ready to raise the bar for SA and global travellers

One of the world’s biggest airlines, Emirates, says it is gearing up for a post-Covid travel boom as restrictions around the world have either been removed completely or significantly eased.

Emirates’ hub, Dubai International airport (DXB), was dubbed the world’s busiest airport by Business Traveller. During 2021- 22, the airport recorded its highest numbers of international travellers in eight years, despite this being the era of an international pandemic.

The forecast is that the numbers could top 58.3 million this year, according to Gulf News.

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Post-pandemic boom

Emirates senior vice-president Badr Abbas, who is responsible for operations in Africa and developing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market from Africa, said: “Despite the disruptions caused by the omicron variant [of the coronavirus] at the end of last year and beginning of this year, there’s much to be optimistic about, and we need to be prepared for a post-pandemic boom.

“We’ve also seen growing passenger confidence in the travel sector, and Africans are ready to go back and start travelling again. This reflects strongly in our bookings for [the first half of next year].”

Asked about how DXB and the airline coped during Covid, Abbas said: “Airport traffic this year exceeded traffic in 2021 despite all the challenges and all infections.

“Providing smooth and effective travel for millions of travellers is an integral part of what we do.

“Dubai’s position as one of the first cities to open for business and tourism helped immensely by the end of last year, the airport was operating at 100% capacity.

“It isn’t an accident for Dubai to be a global aviation hub: we want the city to be a top destination for international travellers and traders.”

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Abbas said an indication of the airline’s confidence was that it “will be having the largest retrofit technology inserted into our aircraft, making our flights the largest fleet of airplanes using the retrofit system”.

“This would see more than 100 of our aircraft fitted with the latest premium economy class product, raising the bar for in-flight comfort and innovation.

South Africa won’t be left behind

South Africa, he added, “plays a major role in the airline’s global plans”.

Currently, Emirates has two flights going through to Dubai daily, taking the Johannesburg route to Durban and then flying direct to DXB and the same on the Cape Town route.

Abbas said: “We have revised our agreement with South African Airways [SAA] that was devised in September 2021.

“This will give us a boost to our network and access in South and Southern Africa, and full access to code share partners, including, SAA, Airlink and Flashfire.

“This will extend our route map to 79 cities and provide larger access to more passengers.

“We are looking at growing tourism through our more than 130 destinations worldwide.

“We put the Airbus A380 into SA, which is our flagship aircraft and pretty large.

“We operate in three gateways which for Emirates is the biggest service to any African country.

“The SA traveller prefers flying via Dubai to get to experience Dubai even if it’s to connect to other destinations.”

So, Emirates is all about bringing visitors to South Africa, as well as allowing South Africans to connect with the globe.

Pushing technological boundaries

Abbas said the increase in demand had led to the airline developing new digital systems, including “a completely paperless system to make boarding a flight, navigating the busy airport and travel seamless”.

He said: “A passenger does their biometrics from the start of check-in, leading to scanning your face to enter the business class lounge and later boarding your flight.

“Passengers digitally set up flight music and movie playlists from the mobile app before boarding.”

Like other airlines, Emirates constantly monitors fuel prices and adjusts fares accordingly, but does try to offset the escalating prices to keep the cost of travel as low as possible.

– thamik@citizen.co.za