Emirates committed to building a viable sub regional aviation industry

Emirates Airline says it is committed to contributing to the development of a viable aviation industry in West Africa by feeding passengers to any viable carrier that would be created in the region. Mr. Manoj Gopi Nair, West Africa Regional Manager of Emirates made this statement at a meeting with the press in Accra on Wednesday.

The meeting, the first of its kind, was to afford the media in Ghana an insight into the operations of Emirates and to build a relationship with them.

Mr. Nair said although competition in Accra was increasing with the influx of airlines operating to and from, Emirates would continue to provide value for its passengers and to give them a preferred choice.

“We also maintain a competitive edge by having the youngest fleet of aircraft in the sky with an average fleet age of 70 months. We currently operate 160 modern wide-bodied aircrafts and 192 aircrafts worth about 66 billion dollars pending” he said.

He stated that the airline had performed very well since its inception on 25th October 1985, recording its 25th consecutive year of profit in 2010-2011 financial years with a record performance of AED 5.9 billion (US 1.6 billion dollars) net profit.

Mr Nair said though rivals had linked Emirates ability to provide quality entertainment services including phone call services miles in the sky, to subsidy support from Dubai Government, it was not true, adding the company operated according market forces just like other airlines.

Emirates Airline, currently serves 116 destinations in 67 countries across 6 continents.

In 2011, Emirates Airline launched 4 new passenger routes namely; Basra, Geneva, Copenhagen and St Petersburg. Another route to Baghdad would be launched on November 11, 2011.

The Airline is positive of launching seven new routes namely: Rio, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Lusaka, Harare, Dallas and Seattle.