Dubai-based airline targeting US routes
A TravelMole report in the USA says that little-known in the USA, Emirates Airlines based in Dubai is the world’s fastest-growing and carrier and has ambitions of being the world’s largest airline by 2015 with much of that growth targeted for the US.
“Most of the airline’s growth until recently has been along routes over the Atlantic and in the Middle East. But now it is setting its sights on the US, Los Angeles in particular,” said the Los Angeles Times.
“It’s only a matter of time,” said Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum, the chairman and chief executive of Emirates and the uncle of the ruler of Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates.
“I can’t think of any airline growing that fast,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst for research firm Teal Group Corp. “It was just the size of Alaska Airlines six years ago and now it’s vying to become the world’s largest.”
Started in 1985 with two leased planes, Emirates now operates a fleet of 112 long-haul, wide-body jets. It gets a new plane — typically costing $200 million to $300 million each — about every two weeks.
It is the largest buyer of the $350-million, double-decked Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet. It has ordered 58 of them, nearly a third of all orders for the plane.
The airline’s flights to Houston have been full as oil executives fly directly to Dubai to connect to other Middle East cities. In the past, they would have flown British Airways, connecting through London, or Air France, connecting through Paris, says the newspaper.
Emirates is looking at opening two new US routes next year as it takes delivery of planes with the world’s longest range. Dubai is almost halfway around the globe from Los Angeles.
Eventually, the carrier envisions a transpacific route, with an eye toward emulating defunct Pan American World Airways’ reach that took travelers around the globe in both directions.
A Report by David Wilkening
John Alwyn-Jones
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