EMIRATES CONSIDERS FLIGHT REDUCTIONS AND EVEN ROUTE CUTS FOR AFRICA
(Posted 18th October 2016)
Without giving any names of countries under the spotlight has Emirates’ President Tim Clark for the first time indicated that such measures were under consideration, after flights to Nigeria’s cities of Lagos and Abuja were some time ago already reduced to one a day.
Emirates, going through a challenging year, has of late began to introduce charges for hitherto free services and is according to information from Dubai looking at expanding this measure to add extra revenue while only marginally ahead of last year’s passenger numbers.
Clark spoke on the sidelines of a major IATA event held in Dubai this week about Emirates’ challenges and potential solutions but blamed economic woes and devaluating currencies as main reasons for the downturn in fortunes for Emirates this year.
Emirates is the only Gulf airline exclusively operating wide bodied aircraft and owns the largest fleet of Airbus A380’s in the world. Other Gulf carriers serve African destinations with A320 single aisle aircraft which are easier to fill and cheaper to operate while Emirates uses A330’s and B777’s on most routes to Africa.
In East Africa does Emirates fly daily to Entebbe while Nairobi and Dar es Salaam receive double daily services.
