Industry appears optimistic, says Emirates
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
The travel industry has appeared more optimistic during WTM than in 2009, according to an Emirates senior vice president. Salem Obaidalla, SVP for commercial operations in Europe and Russian Federation at Emirates told Travel Daily that agents and operators are keener to ask questions and generate business this year. “They know what they want and they have the right questions to ask,” he explained. “Things were quieter last year following the financial crisis.” Meanwhile, Obaidalla said the airline’s Manchester and Heathrow routes have remained popular since the A380 deployments. “We have 85% occupancy across both routes and the first class product has really picked up in the last year,” he said. “We are finding that corporate travellers are buying business class seats again, so perhaps these clients will go up a class in the future.” In addition, Emirates is set to introduce more A380s in the next two years, including two in 2011. Obaidalla said these would be used on possible new routes or to increase capacity on popular schedules. The airline has also seen a 351.2% increase in net profit for the first half of the year, which now sits at
Comments are closed.