Emirates Airline promoting Pak-UAE trade, historic ties
* Flew first international route to Karachi with just two aircraft leased from PIA
* Emirates ordered 243 aircraft valuing approx $85.4bn till date
By Shabbir Sarwar
DUBAI: Besides promoting Pak-UAE trade and relationship Emirates Airline witnessed huge growth of approximately 80 percent in Pakistan during last year and the company has decided to increase flights in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Northern areas, said Emirates Airline Senior Vice President Commercial Operations West Asia and Indian Ocean Sheikh Majid Al Mualla during an interview with Daily Times here.
On October 25, 1985, Emirates flew its first international route to Karachi with just two aircraft Boeing 737 and Airbus 300 B4 both leased from Pakistan International Airline. Today PIA has become a loss business venture for Pakistan and on the other hand Emirate Airline is touching the horizon of success.
He said Emirates has limited air traffic rights for Pakistan and utilizing maximum limit of traffic air rights at the moment operating a total 45 flights from Pakistan including 28 from Karachi, 7 each from Islamabad and Lahore and 3 per week from Peshawar. Mualla said that Emirates has evolved into a globally influential travel and tourism conglomerate for their commitment to the highest standards of quality in every aspect of our business.
He said over 3540 Pakistanis are working in the airline including 25 captains, 97-cabin crew. “We have 163 aircrafts and we are expanding as in a couple of year 243 aircraft are coming.” He said Pakistan is very profitable route and they saw 83 growth last year.
Sheikh Majid Al Mualla, who started with the company in 1996 as Vice President, was promoted to Senior Vice President West Asia and Indian Ocean in 1997, due to his aggressive and impressive policy, owing to his untiring efforts the airline expanded and witnessed very pleasant growth rate.
Sheikh Al Mualla, a product of Emirates’ successful trainee management programme, joined the company upon graduation from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida and brings vast global experience to the position after postings in Riyadh, Bangladesh, Lebanon and the UK, while he also held the role of Vice President UAE Sales.
With a fleet of more than 163 aircraft, emirates fly to over 115 destinations in 67 countries around the world, and its network is expanding constantly. Over 1,000 Emirates flights depart Dubai each week on their way to destinations on six continents. According to reference records in 2001, Emirates demonstrated its confidence in the industry’s future growth by announcing the largest order in aviation history, valued at $15 billion. A staggering 58 new aircraft, a mix of Airbus and Boeing, were to join the rapidly expanding fleet.
In 2005, Emirates announced the largest-ever order for the Boeing 777 family of aircraft, 42 in all, in a deal worth $9.7 billion. At the 2006 Farnborough Air Show, Emirates signed a Heads of Agreement for 10 of Boeing’s new 747-8F aircraft, to be powered by General Electric’s GEnx jet engines, in a deal worth $3.3 billion. At the Dubai Airshow in November 2007, Emirates announced a historic civil aviation aircraft order when it signed contracts for 120 Airbus A350s, 11 A380s, and 12 Boeing 777-300ERs, worth an estimated $34.9 billion in list prices. The agreement with Airbus comprises firm orders for 50 A350-900s and 20 A350-1000s, plus 50 options for the A350-900s. The first A350 will be delivered to Emirates in 2015. During 2010, in line with the airline’s strategic growth plan, Emirates significantly increased its order for new aircraft. In June at the Berlin Airshow, Emirates announced an order for an additional 32 Airbus A380s and in July at the Farnborough Airshow, 30 more Boeing 777-300ERs were ordered. The combined value of these orders is $13.4 billion.
The airline is currently the world’s largest operator of both the Airbus A380 and Boeing 777. Among others there are 25 Pakistani pilots who fly emirates aircrafts and two Pakistani nationals captain Hamid Chisti and Captain Khursheed Kazam have the distinction to be the pilot of A380.
Emirates order-book stands at 243 aircraft, with a total value of approximately $85.4 billion. “In combination with what is already the youngest and one of the most modern fleets in worldwide commercial aviation, this commitment to the future reflects our goal to develop Dubai into a comprehensive, global, long-haul aviation hub,” he added.
Mualla said that Emirates president wanted the aircraft fleet increased to 300.
In the financial year 2010/2011, Emirates carried 31.4 million passengers and 1.8 million tonnes of cargo. The Emirates Airline catering facility in Dubai is the largest of its kind in the world in terms of volume throughput, with a design capacity of 115,000 meal trays a day, increasing to 130,000 in 2012, said. Jane Zdrojewski, Senior Operations Performance Manager of Emirates Flight Catering Company LLC. She said that the complete Catering building design as well as systems and equipment was carried out by the EKFC Management Team and the German industrial design company specializing in the field of in-flight catering facilities. The facility was developed on the basis of optimal functional driven concepts. EKFC has adopted the very latest concepts in processing, cold chain, hygiene, environment, and energy saving.
The catering facility has the features like one-way process flow, hygiene and food safety based upon HACCP principles, temperature zones, in-line cooling curtains, the building incorporates the very latest in food production and automated equipment handling systems: Electric monorail cart transport system, Bin conveyor and in-line buffer system, ware wash, cart washer, bin washer, automated food chilling system, VNA (Very Narrow Aisle) truck operated high bay stores, Vacuum waste handling system installed in consideration of the importance of hygiene and environmental requirements.
The automated overhead cart transport system (monorail) is designed to transport meal carts from the vehicle off-loading bay area to the dishwashing area where over 2 million items of equipment such as cutlery, crockery, and glassware are washed everyday. Meal carts are manually stripped, and empty carts are then transported to the mezzanine floor to be washed and sanitised in the cart washing machine. The carts are moved on motorised carriers on a fixed non-moving rail system. Meal trays, oven racks and standard units are also transported around the facility on the monorail. The system features the latest technology in the industry, and the noise level is much lower than the continuous moving belt adopted in older ‘power and free’ systems. The speed is approx. 4 to 8 x times higher.
After washing, the system transports meal carts to a buffer zone for storage. Upon user request, the system will automatically transport the requested number of trolleys from the buffer storage area to either bonded store preparation or the meal pre-setting area.
The Emirates catering building’s total area is 56,330 including basement 5,400 square metres, ground floor 13,800 square meters, Mezzanine 8,100 square meters and first floor 21,600 sm and hi-loader parking, inbound, outbound area is 6,300 square meters.
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