Doors open to Emirates’ new national office in Australia

Emirates Airline officially opened their new national office last Thursday on York Street in Sydney’s CBD.

The Honourable Matthew Brown, Minister for Tourism in New South Wales, joined Richard Vaughan, Emirates’ Senior Vice President Commercial Operations East Asia and Australasia; and Stephen Pearse, Vice President Australia, to mark the occasion.

[Pictured left to right – Richard Vaughan, Senior Vice President Commercial, East Asia and Australasia – Emirates Airline; The Honourable Matthew Brown, New South Wales Tourism Minister; and Stephen Pearse, Vice President Australia – Emirates Airlines.

Emirates commenced flying to Melbourne, Australia in 1996 and established their first national office in Melbourne’s CBD.  Over the next seven years Emirates launched services to Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.

Richard Vaughan said: “Late last year Emirates announced it would introduce new aircraft and increase capacity and frequency in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, representing a multi-billion dollar commitment to the Australian market.”

“The creation of a designated national office will ensure Emirates can continue to provide our customers and clients with first class service, and ensure we cater for expanding employee numbers and offer increased service functions in the future.”

Pictured: Left to Right – John O’Neil, Executive Director & General Manager – Tourism New South Wales; Leslie Cassar, Chairman – Tourism New South Wales; Sherein Sawis – Emirates cabin crew; Stephen Pearse, Vice President Australia – Emirates Airline; The Honourable Matthew Brown, New South Wales Tourism Minister; Richard Vaughan, Senior Vice President Commercial, East Asia and Australasia – Emirates Airline; Loan Dnong – Emirates cabin crew; and Barry Buffier – Director General of the NSW Department of State and Regional Development

Emirates announced it would grow flights from 49 to 70 by 2009, including a second daily-flight from Brisbane in October; a third-daily from Melbourne in February 2009; new state-of-the-art aircraft in Brisbane and Perth in 2008; and a third-daily from Sydney late 2009. 

Sydney will also receive the A380 aircraft early next year, and will be among the first destinations on Emirates’ network to receive one of the 58 A380s Emirates has on order.

The NSW Minister for Tourism Matt Brown said Sydney was an ideal location for Emirates’ national office.

“Recent forecasts indicate arrivals in Sydney from the Middle East and North Africa are expected to triple by 2016,” Mr Brown said.

“Sydney receives half of the total number of international visitors to Australia so the city is the perfect fit for the airline’s national headquarters.”

With the recent and planned expansion in Australia, Emirates has taken the opportunity to create a dedicated national office, in additional to each State facility, and relocate it to Sydney. 

Emirates has approximately 350 permanent staff across Australia, including the sales and ticket office functions in Sydney and the customer call centre, IT and Skywards’ (Emirates’ frequent flyer program) in Melbourne.

A Report by The Mole