RESETTING FOR A POST-PANDEMIC REBOUND
The airline is all set to redefine its business strategy.
As Emirates, the iconic global airline of the UAE marks a milestone in its trail-blazing growth journey of 35 years, it is also preparing for a sooner-than-expected rebound with a post-pandemic reset strategy to ensure a comeback with a bang.
While the crippled global aviation industry gears up for what looks like a slow and steady recovery that is expected to be in full swing by 2024, Emirates, a game-changer all the way since its inception in 1985, is determined to re-launch 100 per cent of its network by the second half of 2021.
Emirates Group Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum has admitted that the Covid-19 pandemic would have a huge impact on the national carrier’s 2020-21 performance. “We continue to take aggressive cost management measures and other necessary steps to safeguard our business, while planning for business resumption.”
The airline’s President Tim Clark has said the network model pioneered by Emirates would not be threatened by the pandemic, despite the massive contraction in global flights.
Arguing that the global air travel demand would return more quickly and more strongly than expected, Clark said network carriers such as Emirates could even emerge stronger from it. “I think there will be a bounce back and I think demand will drive that bounce back.
“The pandemic is a glitch. We’ve had many of those in the past — perhaps not as significant and severe as this one for our industry, but nevertheless it’s a glitch. We will come through it and pick up again,” he said while addressing a virtual aviation conference recently. “As you roll forward, is there a place for network carriers of the size, scale and panache and brand of Emirates? Of course. I’m a firm believer in that...”
With global air travel starting the recovery journey from the pandemic induced ravages, the Emirates, as its Chief Operating Officer Adel Ahmad Al Redha has said, will need to redefine its post-pandemic strategy to recover from the damage done by the coronavirus pandemic. “We will need to redefine some of the operating model… because surely what used to work for us in the past is not going to work for us going forward.”
“I think we can easily say by summer ’21 we will be serving 100 per cent of our network destinations. That means 143 destinations will be served by summer ’21,” Al Redha said in an interview. Already, flights to several routes have been restored partially while more re-launch operations are in the offing.
As the airline celebrates its 35th anniversary, it is a time to look back at its remarkable journey. During those years of meteoric growth as a global brand of choice, the UAE national carrier has been setting higher quality standards in the commercial aviation sector as one of the leading airlines in the world.
With the world’s largest wide-body fleets of Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft, the legacy carrier has been playing a pivotal role in transforming Dubai as a sought-after hub for international tourists, businessmen and transit passengers.
In the post-Covid era, it is quite natural for the aviation industry to expect the future-ready airline to excel that track-record by getting more passengers to visit Dubai while continuing to connect the world through the successful hub-and-spoke model it relied on for over three decades.
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