About Emirates Airlines
Emirates Airlines (shortened form: Emirates) is an airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates owned by The Emirates Group. It operates services to the Middle East, Far East, Europe, Africa, Indian subcontinent, Asia-Pacific and North America (with the beginning of October the South American contient will be added to Emirates' regular destination, flying from Dubai to Sao Paulo). Its main base is Dubai International Airport.
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History The airline was established in May 1985 by the Dubai government. It started operations with flights to Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi followed by Karachi in September. A single Airbus A300 and a Boeing 737-300 were leased from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). Subsequently two Boeing 727-200 Advanced were acquired from the UAE's Royal Flight. These aircraft were used until Emirates began taking delivery of a fleet of newly built Airbus A300-600R and A310-300 widebodied aircraft. It has been awarded a four star ranking from Skytrax.
The first European destination to be added in July 1987 was London-Gatwick. Far Eastern operations commenced to Singapore in June 1990. Emirates acquired a financial stake of 40% and a management contract for Air Lanka on 1 April 1998, which subsequently changed its name to Sri Lankan Airlines. Emirates SkyCargo is the cargo subsidiary of Emirates.
Emirates received the prestigious airline of the year award for the first time in 2001 and repeated the feat on 2002 to become a two time award winner of the airline of the year.
For 2004–05, Emirates paid an increased dividend of Dh368 million to the Government of Dubai, compared to Dh329 million the year before. In total, the ownership received Dh1.1 billion from Emirates since dividends started being paid in 1999. Having provided an initial start-up capital of US$10m plus and an additional investment of circa US$80m at the time of the airline's inception, the Dubai government is the sole owner of the company. However, it does not put any new money into it, nor does it interfere with running the airline.
In November 2006 it was announced that Emirates had signed a deal with mobile communications form AeroMobile. This will allow passengers on board Emirates flights to use their mobile phones to call or text people on the ground. This is the first airline in aviation history to confirm a deal which will allow passengers to use their personal mobile phone in early January 2007 on selected Boeing 777. Emirates won the award for best inflight entertainment 2006 from Skytrax, because of their ICE (information communication entertainment) system, with the biggest selling point being over 500 channels of Movies, Television and music.
Emirates has begun construction on its own luxury five star hotel and towers. It is located next to Dnata headquarters on the Sheikh Zayed highway.
In mid-2007, Emirates will feature docking capability for Apple Computer's iPod portable music and video player. This will allow the device's battery to be charged, but will also allow integration with Emirates' In-flight Entertainment (IFE) system. This will also enable the IFE system to play music, television shows, or movies stored on the iPod, as well as function as a control system.
On the 20th of February 2007, Emirates was named the UAE's top brand among 25 other local firms. It has a base value of US$ 6.3 billion.