EMIRATES ADDS 25TH A380 – CONTINUES EXPANSION DRIVE
Dubai’s award winning national airline established a new record of sorts on Wednesday, when not one but two Airbus A380 were delivered in Dubai in addition to yet another B777-300.
A regular source at the Kampala office of the airline sounded ‘over the moon’ when phoning in the news and was swift to point out that the rollout of destination was continuing. ‘Emirates will soon be the biggest international airline and travelers can then reach any point of the globe with just one stop in Dubai. By year end we are told we will have 5 or 6 more of those giant aircraft. Connecting passengers on routes in high demand will then have even more chances to experience the quietest cabin in the sky and the best service. Business and First Class especially will impress so much that our passengers will always come back. And our stop over programmes and special promotions for Dubai visits are winners no one else can match. It is the most exciting city in the world today’.
Emirates, faced with increasing competition in East Africa by Gulf rivals Qatar Airways and of late also by Etihad, has been pulling out all stops in recent weeks to promote special fares, companion ticket rebates, issuance of Visa free of cost for passengers in another promotion and stay over packages for Dubai, besides very low launch fares to such destinations as Washington DC. However, other airlines like Turkish too are pursuing a similar strategy to connect Africa to the world through their hub in Istanbul, but Emirates advantage is the sole use of wide bodied state of the art jets and a modern airport, where soon a dedicated A380 terminal will be available to connect passengers from Africa to board the world’s largest passenger aircraft without congestion or long waiting periods.
Emirates flies twice daily nonstop from Dubai to Nairobi and daily to Dar es Salaam and Entebbe but is still notably absent from Kigali for instance or from Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and Mombasa. These are destinations already flown to by some of the airline’s rivals or at the very least awaiting inaugural flights in due course, as is the case with Turkish adding JRO and MBA and in the case of ZNZ Qatar Airways.
Watch this space for regular and breaking news from East Africa’s vibrant aviation scene.
