Emirates aims to return to 100% of pre-pandemic operations and network capacity in 2023

The Dubai-based airline is in 'good shape' to move on to the next stage of recovery, chief operating officer Adnan Kazim says

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  Emirates cabin crew in the airline's brown, white and red uniforms. Getty

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  Emirates was rated the world’s safest airline in January 2022 for the second year in a row. Reuters

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  An Emirates Boeing 777-200LR aircraft mid-flight. Photo: Emirates

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  Emirates airline's Boeing 777-300ER jets at Dubai International Airport. Reuters

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  Travellers at Dubai International Airport's Terminal 3. Chris Whiteoak / The National

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  Emirates has first and business class lounges around the world. Photos: Emirates

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  A fast-track gate that uses face and iris-recognition technology at Dubai International Airport. The biometric system is being used at 122 smart gates at the airport's arrival and departure terminals. AFP

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  An Emirates cabin crew staff member demonstrates new health and safety measures introduced after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: Emirates

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  Emirates has fully enclosed private suites in first class. Photo: Emirates

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  An Emirates Airbus A380 aircraft on the tarmac at the 2021 Dubai Airshow. AFP

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  Emirates, Etihad, flydubai and Air Arabia aircraft perform a flypast over the UAE. Emirates

Emirates, the world's largest long-haul airline, expects to return to 100 per cent of operations and network capacity in 2023 as demand for travel and tourism recovers.

The airline is in “good shape” in terms of moving to the next stage of recovery, it said.

Next year will be a “milestone” in terms of getting back to the level of operations where the airline had left it before the coronavirus pandemic, Emirates' chief operating officer Adnan Kazim told a media briefing on Tuesday.

The carrier is operating at 70 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity and that will increase to 80 per cent before the end of the summer, he said.

Emirates expects its capacity to rise to 85 per cent by the beginning of its winter schedule in November.

“The focus remains on recovering the Emirates’ network and capacity, which will be the core,” Mr Kazim said. “For us, next year will be the year of full recovery — 100 per cent. That’s what we aim for.”

The Dubai-based airline posted a loss of Dh20.3 billion ($5.5bn) in the 2020-2021 fiscal year after the pandemic hit the aviation industry.

Most carriers received bailouts or a capital injection to cope with the worst crisis in the sector's history. Emirates received an injection of $3.1bn from the Dubai government.

Airport services provider Dnata received $218 million in relief from authorities during that fiscal year.

However, the demand for travel has bounced back strongly and the momentum has carried into this year. Emirates will record a “good set of results” for its fiscal year ended March 31, narrowing losses for the last 12 months.

The airline expects to return to profit in the next fiscal year, president Tim Clark said last month.

Emirates reported signs of recovery both in terms of seat factor and demand, Mr Kazim said.

“It’s very positive and that’s happening in all the sectors of the business that we are in today,” he said.

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Emirates airline through the years - in pictures

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  Guests board the first flight. It took off from Dubai to Karachi on October 25, 1985. Photo: Emirates

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  Later in the year, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid gave Emirates two Boeing 727-200s. Courtesy Emirates

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  The first passengers board the inaugural Emirates flight in 1985. Courtesy Emirates

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  A ticket stub from the airline's first flight. Courtesy Emirates

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  The red carpet was rolled out for the inaugural flight in 1985. Courtesy Emirates

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  The first flight departs the mainland and heads for India. Courtesy Emirates

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  Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, second from the left, became chairman of Emirates when the airline was launched. He was also appointed President of the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation in the same year. He is currently chairman and chief executive of Emirates Airline and Group. To the right is Maurice Flanagan. He moved to Dubai in 1978 to run dnata and later became managing director of Emirates airline and then of the Emirates Group. he stepped down as executive vice-chairman in 2013 and passed away earlier this year. Courtesy Emirates

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  The first flight arrives in Karachi. Courtesy Emirates

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  The crew on board an Emirates flight are all smiles. Emirates took delivery of its first bought aircraft, an Airbus 310 in 1987. The Airbus A310-300 was designed to Emirates specifications. Courtesy Emirates

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  Emirates cabin crew in the 1980s. The 1990 Emirates ordered three more Airbus A310-300s at the Asean Aerospace exhibition in Singapore. Then, in 1991, it began services to the busiest international hub in the world – London Heathrow before ordering seven Boeing 777s, with an option for seven more. Courtesy Emirates

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  Sheikh Ahmed holds a phone onboard an Emirates flight in 1993. In 1992, Emirates became the first airline to install video systems in all seats in all classes throughout its Airbus fleet. In the same year it started flights to Charles de Gaulle in Paris and opened an exclusive Emirates terminal at Dubai International Airport. It also became the first airline to order a $20 million Airbus full-flight simulator. In 1993 it became the first airline to introduce telecommunications on all of its Airbus aircraft – in all three classes. The following year it was the first airline to equip an Airbus fleet with an on-flight fax facility. Courtesy Emirates

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  Emirates' first video system pictured in 1992. Courtesy Emirates

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  Passengers enjoy the new video system. Courtesy Emirates

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  First class passengers were able te recline and enjoy the visual entertainment from 1992. Courtesy Emirates

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  The video system included the soon-to-become classic film Home Alone. Courtesy Emirates

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  A passenger adjusts the video system. In 1996, Emirates took delivery of its first Boeing 777-200 and became the first airline to show live footage of take-off and landing on its in-flight entertainment system. Courtesy Emirates

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  In 2000, Emirates was the first airline to sign up for the Airbus A380, pictured, when it ordered seven, with an option on five more, at the Farnborough Air Show. It also bought another six Boeing 777-300s. In 2001, it signed a £24 million deal to sponsor English Premiership football club Chelsea for four years, and announced a $15 billion order for 15 A380s, eight A340-600s, three A330s and 25 Boeing 777s. In 2003, it broke records at the Paris Air Show with an order for 71 aircraft at a cost of $19 billion. In the same year it launched ice, making it the first airline to offer more than 500 channels of in-flight entertainment on demand in all classes, the widest choice in the skies. In 2007, Captain Abbas Shaban, a UAE national, was the first pilot qualified to fly the A380, which the airline took delivery of in 2008. AFP

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  Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid descends the stairs of an A380 cargo plane on arrival at Dubai World Central, Al Maktoum International Airport which opened on June 27, 2010 with the aim of becoming the world's busiest. Emirates SkyCargo moved its freighter operations to DWC in 2014. AP Photo

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  An Emirates A380 soars during the Dubai Air Show in 2013. That year Concourse A, the world’s first purpose built A380 concourse, opened its doors at Dubai International Airport. The giant building with 20 A380 gates was over 800 metres long. Emirates rewrote aviation history with an order for 200 aircraft – 150 Boeing 777Xs and 50 A380s, costing $99 billion. AFP

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  Dubai International Airport is now the busiest in the world for international passenger traffic. It projects annual passenger traffic of 79 million for 2015. Pawan Singh / The National

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  Tim Clark became Emirates president in 2003, having joined in 1985 as head of airline planning. He has seen Emirates’ brand value grow for four consecutive years to $6.6 billion with the airline named the most valuable airline brand in the world. It now has a cabin crew of more than 20,000. Pawan Singh / The National

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  Emirates, now with a route network of 140 cities, and 267 aircraft on order worth $128 billion, rolled out its new television advert featuring Friends star Jennifer Aniston earlier this month. Courtesy Emirates

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Emirates serves about 130 destinations, more than 90 per cent of its network, which will expand to 100 per cent of its pre-pandemic level in 2023.

The airline has almost 140 Boeing 777 aircraft in operation and 70 Airbus A380s superjumbos — a number which Mr Kazim expects to “ramp up before the end of the financial year”.

It is in talks with plane builders Boeing and Airbus for delays to deliveries of Boeing 787 and 777X jets as well as the Airbus A350 aircraft it has on order.

Emirates is spending about $1.3bn on retrofitting the 120 jets from its fleet of Boeing 777 ER and Airbus A380 aircraft as it now plans to keep some planes longer than planned.

“We have 67 of A380s and the remaining are [Boeing] 777s,” Mr Kazim said.

The airline’s cargo business is also holding up well despite geopolitical headwinds and more coronavirus outbreaks in China.

“We haven’t seen any difference in that [demand]. Still, the number is solid, still revenue for cargo [is] standing, as we have seen during the peak time last year and the year before that,” Mr Kazim said.

The airline is optimistic about growth prospects, helped by a pickup in the Dubai’s travel and tourism sector.

Emirates is working closely with the Dubai Corporation for Tourism & Commerce Marketing to improve growth in the sector.

Dubai, the tourism and commercial hub of the Middle East, was among the first destinations to open up for tourists in 2020 and stayed open with robust safety measures, which gave “confidence to global travelling population in the destination”, Issam Kazim, chief executive of DTCM, said while announcing the details of the Arabian Travel Market, which will be held in Dubai next month.

Dubai has concluded a successful Expo 2020 with 24 million visitors in six months, demonstrating the resilience of the emirate as a tourism centre, he said.

“It was successful event in its own right let alone it is coming on the back of a global pandemic,” Mr Kazim said.

The emirate had 7.3 million international visitors last year, and the authorities aim to surpass that number this year.

Dubai has started with 2.2 million visitors in the first two months of 2022, “showing that the energy is coming back”, he said.

DTCM is working on some key markets that still have not opened or have not “come back to their full scale”, he said.