Galery

1

The route Athens - Dubai - Athens is considered as the fastest growing and most profitable route of the flight network of Emirates airline in Europe as stated by Mohammad Sarhan, Area Manager for Greece and Albania, while presenting Emirates airline in Athens. He states that luxury cars sold in Greece are being transported abroad through cargo flights of the company and Ioannis Vezirdzis, manager of cargo flights, adds that Emirates airline has been transporting luxury cars such as Ferrari and Lamborghini from Athens to countries like Japan and Singapore. According to Mohammad Sarhan, the route Dubai - Athens is the most profitable for the company in Europe, it had even registered the highest growth of passenger flow in April and May compared to all international flights at "Eleftherios Venizelos" airport.

In April, the reported increase was 25.6% whereas it was 64.4% in May. The growth is due to the fact that the company has started using the Boeing 777 - 300 ER for flights to and from Athens offering, on average, 60% more seats than in the summer of 2012, thus ensuring bookings for 90% of all the seats of the summer flights, which is a very positive scenario for the tourist inflow to Greece in 2013. In addition to the regular daily flight with a Boeing 777 - 300 the company has been offering an additional second daily flight during the summer of 2013 in order for it to meet the increased demand to and from Greece.

Overall, the number of passengers to and from Athens is 122,120, 62,438 of whom are arriving passengers (from Dubai) and 59,682 are departing (to Dubai). Due to the high demand the company is planning to resume the commercial flights of its flagship Airbus A380 to Greece’s international airport "Eleftherios Venizelos" on 15 September 2013. The main destinations of Emirates airline from Greece (via Dubai) are as follows: Australia and South Africa, where there are large Greek communities, the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East, the islands in the Indian Ocean, and China, North Asia, the Far East and the Indian subcontinent. As stated by Mohammad Sarhan Emirates airline will introduce, as of 1 October, direct flights from Milan to New York, which will be the shortest route from Athens to the American city. The flight Athens - Milan will follow the existing route of AEGEAN AIRLINES.

In addition to passenger flights the company reports growth in cargo flights to Greece too. From the beginning of the year to July 2013 Sky Emirates Cargo transported to Greece 2,370 tons of items (which is a 30% increase compared to 2012) and another 260 tons in August. From January to July it transported from Greece 2,200 tons and another 280 tons in August although it carried out ad hoc temporary seasonal double flights with Cargo 747 and ad hoc flights from Thessaloniki. Emirates airline employs 456 Greeks, 346 of whom are crew and 37 pilots. Mohammad Sarhan states that the recent cooperation of Emirates airline with the Australian company Qantas is already paying off, as the two companies are successfully interacting in linking Eurasia with Oceania. Therefore, Qantas is profitable again after a long period of losses.
 
He points out that ticket prices will increase in the event of a war in Syria and a subsequent increase in the price of Brent crude oil because oil constitutes 40% of the operating costs of the company. Emirates airline started its business in 1985 with a fleet of two aircrafts that it had bought on an instalment plan from Pakistan Airlines. The company now has a fleet of 201 aircrafts (the largest fleet in the world consisting of Boeing 777 and Airbus A380) and it has ordered another 192 aeroplanes with a total value of 71 billion dollars. The turnover of Emirates’ passenger flights amounted to 9.7 billion dollars in the first half of 2013 and its net profit to 464 million dollars. By comparison, the same indicators in 2012 were 8.3 billion dollars and 225 million dollars respectively. Currently the company is operating flights to 134 destinations in 76 countries.
Translated by Jessica Rafailova