A handout picture made available on October 26, 2008 from the media office of Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum shows Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Defence Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, walking through an aisle of the second Emirates Airline A380 superjumbo at Dubai international airport. The rich Gulf Emirate received the second A380 on October 24, 2008. Emirates, which is owned by the government of Dubai, is the largest customer of the A380. It has 58 on order in a deal worth about 18.8 billion dollars based on list prices.
The performance of Emirates Airline is an excellent guide to the underlying performance of business in Dubai. The airline is worth around $6 billion to the local economy. The announcement of record profits, up 62 per cent to $1.4 billion in the year to end of March, is a reflection both of the oil boom in the Gulf States and the dynamism of Dubai as a destination. Emirates is also an extremely well managed airline, and now ranks among the top five most profitable in the world, giving the carrier an enviable ability to expand its fleet to become one of the world’s biggest long-haul carriers, perhaps one day the largest of them all.
For Emirates has a total of 182 aircraft on order costing $58 billion, including 58 of the giant new super jumbo A380s from Airbus. The global financial crisis has apparently had ‘no impact’ on funding this acquisition program, Gary Chapman, President of Group Services and Dnata told me this morning.
Emirates Airline has saved some 10 million litres of jet fuel and 772 hours of flight time since teaming with Air Services Australia to form a new route planning initiative five years ago.
