Emirates in close touch with Indian authorities; keen on flight services at full capacity once conditions permit

PTI, Dec 19, 2021, 11:52 AM IST

Gulf carrier Emirates, which currently serves nine destinations under the air bubble pact with India, is looking forward to operate at its full capacity in the country once the conditions permit and is in close contact with Indian authorities for the same.

The coronavirus pandemic has crippled the aviation sector, which is slowly on the recovery mode amid easing of restrictions, including travel curbs.

Against this backdrop, Emirates Vice President, India & Nepal, Mohammad Sarhan said the airline has ramped up flight frequencies globally and expects to return to profitability over the next 18 months.

”In line with the easing of travel restrictions worldwide, we’ve ramped up flight frequencies across our network and deployed our iconic A380 aircraft on 25 destinations.

”We’re well on the path to recovery. We’ve restored 90 per cent of our pre-pandemic network, and we expect to return to profitability over the next 18 months,” he told PTI.

He also said that last month, the airline announced it will be retrofitting 105 aircraft in its fleet with the ”highly lauded” premium economy class cabin, taking the travel experience to new levels.

Currently, the airline serves nine destinations in India, utilising its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. These services are being operated under the air bubble arrangement between India and UAE.

”Given the latest developments, we are in close contact with the local authorities, and we look forward to operating at full capacity once conditions allow us to do so,” Sarhan said.

Under an air bubble agreement between two countries, international passenger flights can be operated by their respective carriers to each other’s territories subject to certain conditions.

Scheduled international commercial flights to and from India remain suspended since March 2020 in the wake of the pandemic and the suspension has been extended till January 31, 2022. Currently, overseas flights are operated under bilateral air bubble agreements with various countries.

India has air bubble agreements with 34 countries, as per the civil aviation ministry website.

To a question on the steps being taken by Emirates for reducing carbon emission, which is considered a key factor in the fight against climate change, Sarhan said it has made efforts and that it operates a young and modern aircraft fleet with an average age of 6.5 years.

At the Dubai Airshow last month, the airline signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with GE Aviation to develop a programme that will see an Emirates Boeing 777-300ER, powered by GE90 engines, conduct a test flight using 100 per cent Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) by 2022 end, he noted.

Emirates is also a member of the Clean Skies for Tomorrow coalition, established by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is supporting a transition to SAF as part of a pathway towards carbon-neutral flying, he said and listed various other measures, including using sustainably made blankets using 28 plastic bottles for economy class passengers on long haul flights.

During the pandemic, Emirates also took various steps for customers’ safety.

”We introduced contactless technology at Dubai Airport for a smoother experience, including self check-in kiosks and biometric path which utilises the latest facial biometric technology. We also revised our booking policies to offer customers generous re-booking terms, and introduced COVID-19 medical travel insurance.

”We were also one of the first airlines to implement the IATA travel pass across our global network,” Sarhan said.

With Emirates also running a pavilion at the ongoing Expo 2020 in Dubai, he said it expects to receive over 2,60,000 visitors by the end of March 2022.

”Expo 2020 recently recorded more than 5.6 million visitors to the grounds, and we are very confident the mega-event will continue to draw in large visitor numbers over the next four months,” he said.

The airline’s pavilion has put up multi-sensory installations and visual experiences, showing people what the future of commercial aviation will look like in 50 years from now.

”Over the past few months, we’ve also welcomed global business leaders, state officials and renowned sports figure such as Milan legend, Daniele Massaro,” Sarhan said.