Starwood looks to develop budget hotel brands in Dubai

The rapid expansion of Emirates Airline is driving the trend said Frits van Paasschen, the chief executive of Starwood.

Frits van Paasschen, the chief executive of Starwood, said the next wave of growth in Dubai some of the company's three- and four-star brands such as Aloft. Jaime Puebla / The National

Emirates Airline will add more superjumbos on transatlantic routes despite criticism from US carriers alleging unfair state support.

Emirates is expanding its presence in the US with an A380 service to Dallas/Fort Worth to be followed by San Francisco and Houston. It added two new destinations in the US this year, and will continue to upgrade its aircraft and frequencies to the market.

The carrier plans to build further capacity on transatlantic routes despite encountering opposition from US rivals

"As we have already mentioned and shown, Emirates is state-owned but not state-backed, there is no evidence of that," said Thierry Antinori, the executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Emirates.

“But we are not too much obsessed about [the criticism], we respect each of the airlines criticising, and it won’t change Emirates strategy.”

The airline will add its fourth daily flight from Dubai International Airport to John F Kennedy International Airport, New York, from next March.

US and European carriers are facing increasing competition on lucrative transatlantic routes from Arabian Gulf carriers. The expansion of Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways to an increasing number of US cities is rapidly emerging as the next big battleground in global aviation.

In September, the American Airlines chairman and chief executive Doug Parker called for Washington support to respond to competition from Arabian Gulf carriers.

Some of the US airlines have even suggested reviewing open skies agreements, according to the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation consultancy. The US has open skies agreements with the UAE and Qatar.

European carriers have also become increasingly vocal about the impact of Gulf airline expansion on their businesses.

“Airlines from the Middle East have entered into alliances, placed mega-orders for hypermodern aircraft, started to bring operations of Airbus A380 aircraft to Schiphol and are continuing to expand and make conditions difficult for European airlines,” Air France-KLM said in its annual report.

Meanwhile, the expansion of Emirates is also drawing more interest from international hotel groups in its home city.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which operates the Sheraton and Le Meridien resorts in the Emirates, is focusing on the development of new budget brands in Dubai.

The rapid expansion of Emirates is driving the trend, said Frits van Paasschen, the chief executive of Starwood.

“The next wave of growth in Dubai will be with some of our three and four-star brands such as Aloft, Element and Four Points by Sheraton, and the goal is to have Dubai as second to none in terms of number of hotels for Starwood,” said Mr van Paasschen.

The group expects to open a 474-room Sheraton Grand Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road on November 22. It will also include 180 serviced apartments. Next year, it plans to open the emirate’s first St Regis at Al Habtoor’s 1 million square feet complex and another Westin. The third property in the complex, a W hotel, is scheduled to open before the end of next year.

Starwood and Emirates signed a partnership on rewards sharing for hotel guests and Emirates passengers on Monday. The rewards sharing facility will not extend to Emirates’ partner Qantas airlines.

“Emirates is growing and we are in a majority of those destinations,” Mr Van Paasschen said.

The airline flies to 147 destinations, with eight of them starting this year.

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