At the World Government Summit, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed, president of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, chairman and chief executive of Emirates airline and chairman of Dubai Airports, fielded questions from Richard Quest of CNN
Q: In relation to the Open Skies Agreement and talks of the US reopening the bilateral with the UAE and Qatar, do you think that the US’s three [major domestic airlines, American, Delta and United] will succeed?
A: The case is with the American government and we have not heard anything yet. We have had many people, companies and allies who supported our case and I think the US insisted on an open sky policy at the time. Maybe they were thinking we are too small and they would be able to win in this battle but here, today, we proved to the world that we are a well-recognised airline.
Q: Has it been damaging to aviation to have this dispute?
A: Governments should play that role and governments around the world always want to see a competitive world. That is the only way to do it, by allowing competition.
Q: Starting on the ground, what do you think has been the biggest innovation that aviation has seen?
A: There are too many to list ... within Emirates, but the digital world and the internet [are some]. If you are flying for 17 hours in economy and you have the internet, you will be able to sit there maybe, besides sleeping and eating the good food, and enjoy it. You will be able to connect for a dollar or for free. We put $20 million today into the passenger for using [the internet] for a dollar.
Q: Are you worried that there is now too much capacity in aviation and the downturn could see you in deep trouble?
A: No, a lot of people say 2016 will be a bad year, but it should be a good year. We have to remain positive. In the past 30 years a lot of people said it is a piece of cake that everybody will share, but I think we went beyond that, we expanded this market. The UAE isn’t what it was 30 years ago, we managed to attract a lot of people and I think this is something we managed to achieve today with 80 million passengers in Dubai, very close to 120 million, so we have really developed this market to see it is the hub of the world.
Q: Would you be interested in acquiring somebody else?
A: We tried it in the past with Sri Lankan Airlines, we had about 45 per cent, we did fairly well but I think we always believe that you should leave the business to be run by the commercial people, not by politicians. In this regard, I would say no, because this year, for example, I will be receiving 37 aircraft at Emirates, so why should I buy somebody else when I have this? Some airlines do that in 50 years, but we did that in just one.
Q: You have this remarkable relationship with Qantas. Do you see more relationships like this deal for Emirates?
A: I think if we can see ourselves with other airlines [that] have at least the same mentality as the way we approach it. Initially, we did not want to join because we thought we would be restricting ourselves from growing in the airline business. If asked today, I would not consider it, we will stay solo.
Q: Talking about an ultra long-haul route, you are about to launch Dubai-Panama City, which will be longest route in the world. What’s the attraction of these routes of 17 to 18 hours?
A: I think when we think about planning any route, we don’t plan it because we are looking for the publicity. You get to make money first of all, which serves this hub in a way as well as the region and this is how we construct our business. You will see that we pushed Panama to a later day and we will be starting the first flight to New Zealand on March 1 and that route will be out of Auckland to Dubai, which will be 17 hours and 15 minutes. It will be longest route ever and that will happen in two weeks from now.
Q: Would you care to join me on that flight in economy?
A: I don’t mind, I enjoy flying low-cost, I’m also close to the people and I tried it.
Q: Where is the battle in the future between global carriers?
A: I think it’s all about service and what we can do together. The airline can do a lot but we have to also think as an airline, we need all stakeholders to be working with us to be able to serve the governments in the best way. For example, I can do a good service on the plane and the airport but I also have to touch base with the immigration, customs and police. And I think part of our success today [is] because we have a government that pushes everybody to make it happen. If I do a good job, without the help from Sheikh Saif [bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior] for example, we won’t be able to do it and this is something we always argue about and we fight as one team.
Q: Is it that which your critics are most opposed to? As American carriers say, Emirates has a government supporting it.
A: It’s not supporting it in terms of giving cash to that airline, it is competing in the way they are giving me the service. It is not just Emirates airline, when you look at airports, the airport is used by more than 120 other airlines and they will all be given the same service.
Q: Critics say the airline has an advantage because the head of the airport is also head of the airline and head of air traffic navigation, so how can we really compete?
A: At the end of the day, I have a lot of people that work as individuals in every department that they run, if it’s at the Civil Aviation, at the airport or the airline. I am there to see everybody working together, giving support that we give as a government, but not in the way they explain to the people.
Q: Are you giving up your role any time soon?
A: It is not for me to decide, but I do enjoy it.
Q: Why do you still like aviation?
A: Because it is changing all the time.
Q: Paint for me the picture for tomorrow.
A: We, in this business, need a much wider bandwidth in the future to be able to observe all the demand from our passengers. People want fast internet and I think this is something telecommunication companies need to put a lot of effort into. We will be a user and I think this is the challenge today. If we look in a more positive way, it has changed a lot from the day we started, I remember we started fixing telephones in seats at the time. We introduced sms, fax on board and so on. So I think if we look from our customers’ [point of view], we have to raise the bar all the time and there will be an announcement in a few months for something we will be adding to our planes next year.
cmalek@thenational.ae
