Emirates is the largest airline in the Middle East. Operating a fleet of 250 plus aircraft they have the capacity to fill more than 78,000,000 seats. With routes to 80 countries in 150 cities, their aircraft flies over 3,600 times per week. Emirates 23,000 cabin crew help serves 190 meals per minute every day. There was a time when Emirates had one plane with 5 cabin crews onboard. How did Emirates manage to go from one route to one of the world’s top 10 airlines in a span of 30 years?
Emirates started with the establishment of DANTA in 1959. With five employees, Dubai National Air Transport Association or DANTA provided sales service to 25 airlines. Dubai was a stopover route for travelers going from Europe to Australia. With an open sky policy, DANTA was kept busy. Then on December 2nd, 1971, United Arab Emirates declared independence from Britain. Three years after the independence, the rulers of the UAE decided to establish a joint flag carrier with Gulf Air.
Gulf Air wanted UAE to abandon the open sky policy. To show how serious they were, Gulf Air reduced frequency at the UAE’s airspace. The ruler of UAE, Saeed bin Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum, did not take this reduction kindly. He builds a team of experts, managed by Maurice Flanagan. The team also had Tim Clark and the ruler’s then 26- year old son, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum. Sheik Ahmed had graduated from the University of Colorado until then he did not have any experience in Airlines. But that did not stop him from being a major figure in building the new airline. His vision from the very start was to build an airline people want to sit in. With a 10 members team, they came up with a business plan to start a home carrier for Dubai. The plan was quickly accepted by the ruler, and with the financial backing of $10 million from the royal family, they got to work. The challenged they faced was tough, back then an average airplane would cost 22 million, with only 10 million in the bank, every move had to be calculated carefully. Calls were made across the globe, to find a deal. 5 months in the new startup, in 1985, they managed to finalize a deal with P-I-A, Pakistan International Airlines.
They were going to get two aircraft, the Boeing 737 and the Airbus 300 on wet-leased. P-I-A also provided training facilities to Emirates cabin crew. Emirates secured 3 destinations, Karachi, New Delhi and Bombay. On October 25 1985 at 11:45 , the first flight of Emirates flew with 133 passengers, 5 cabin crews, and a pilot. Emirates Flight EK600 departed for Karachi from Dubai International. They landed in Karachi successfully with PIA’s crew welcoming them on the ground. In the coming days, two more flights departed for Mumbai and Delhi.
In the coming years, Emirates added additional routes to 4 destinations. Amman, Colombo, Cairo, and Dhaka. Two years after their first flight, they were able to purchase their first aircraft, the Airbus A310. Emirates were seeing a growth of 30 percent every year. In 3 years they added 12 destinations. By early 1990, Emirates was transporting 1.6 million passengers per year and was one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines. The same year they launched their first service to Western Europe.
But then in 1990 the Gulf region was at war. The Gulf War was a horrible event that affected many people around the world causing destruction and tragedy. Sadly 100,000 to 200,000 civilians were killed in the war. The Gulf War lead to a 30% drop in world travel. All commercial airlines in the gulf region were suspended. Emirates however started to operate. The war thankfully did not last long, as Emirates was only operational for the last 10 days of the war. The war ended in 1991, by this time 25,000 passengers were flying in Emirates every week to 23 destinations. Following the war, Emirates was in a prime position to expand its reach even further and its fleet consisted of six A300s and eight A310s flying to 37 destinations.
In 1992 Emirates became the first airline to install, video systems for every passenger and the following year, they ordered 7 Boeing 777’s. Emirates also introduced the first telecommunications service on an aircraft.
Emirates had more passengers booking a ticket than the capacity of their main airport. They made a decision to spend an extra $2 million for a new terminal at Dubai International. This terminal was to be used by only one airline, Emirates. By 1999 out of the 11 million people that landed in Dubai, 4.7 million were brought by Emirates. They also started their non-stop flight from the Middle East to North America. This new route helped Emirates grow its workforce to a total of 25,000 people, making them Dubai’s biggest employer. From 2005 to 2009, Emirates bought a total of 142 aircraft, worth 60 billion.
By now Emirates was named the world’s “Most valuable airline brand”. In 2017 they introduced a game-changer. Emirates launched the world’s first fully-enclosed First Class private suites, with unmatchable luxury and privacy. In March 2016 the airline makes gets on the front pages of a newspaper by flying from Dubai to Auckland, setting a record for the longest operation flight, 17 hours, and 15 minutes.
One of the reasons why Emirates is as successful as they are is because they market themselves to the world. In 1996 Emirates became the sponsor of the world’s richest horse racing event — the Dubai World Cup. With participants from 20 + countries, their brand grew even bigger. And then Emirates signed a deal worth 100 million pounds with English Premiership club Real Madrid, The two organizations first joined forces in 2013 and later renewed their contract until 2022. In 2019 Emirates gets in the books of Guinness World Record. The EK2019 takes off with 145 nationalities onboard, making it the most diverse flight in history.
Emirates started off with 3 destinations in 1985, but through hard work, they kept on adding new routes. They introduce Dubai to the world. In a span of 30 years, they have managed to increase their fleet from three aircraft to 256. Their management has made the right decisions, by providing service when every other airline was avoiding the region; they selected the right marketing strategies and have made a name for themselves in the Airline world.
