TravTalk - Middle East

Emirates’ USP: Unique flight experience­s

- Shehara Rizly

Being in the forefront of aviation, Emirates airline continues to provide customers a seamless onboard experience. Their commitment to accessibil­ity, sustainabi­lity and unique flight experience make them the leader in the region. Adil Al Ghaith, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Gulf, Middle East and Central Asia, shares plans for the New Year with .

What will be the focus of Emirates this year in terms of new products onboard?

Our overall focus for 2023 will continue to be our Premium Economy experience as we begin rolling it out to more cities. Premium Economy has proved hugely popular with cabins fully booked up. Since we began selling Premium Economy in August 2022, we have seen many of our Economy Class customers trading up to fly this cabin, and the feedback so far has been fantastic.

We will also continue to build on the commitment we made in 2022 to invest US $2 billion in the inflight customer experience across all cabins, including dining and service enhancemen­ts, onboard amenities underpinne­d by sustainabi­lity, rolling out more cabin upgrades and integratin­g new digital initiative­s both in the air and on the ground to ensure we continue to provide an unrivalled customer propositio­n.

How do you cater to travellers with accessibil­ity issues?

Emirates works hard to make air travel as comfortabl­e and as seamless as possible for all our customers, including those with special needs and disabiliti­es. We regularly listen to and review feedback from our customers, employees and advocacy groups, and we are on our own journey in taking a joined-up approach with our partners within the aviation and travel ecosystem to develop improved services and solutions and provide the consistenc­y that travellers with disabiliti­es expect.

All of our current projects in place as well as future initiative­s around accessibil­ity ladder back to Dubai’s aim in becoming one of the world’s most accessible cities for People of Determinat­ion. For more informatio­n, visit: https://www.emirates.com/ae/ english/before-you-fly/health/ accessible-travel/

Would you be able to share the new platforms or services to be introduced to generate seamless travel for customers and how partner travel agencies could assist in ensuing that this would go further?

Throughout the last few years, we’ve been further strengthen­ing our customer focus by developing products and services based on key insights and travel trends. We’ve meticulous­ly mapped out the pain points across the customer journey and doubled down to ensure a frictionle­ss experience, introducin­g initiative­s like our ‘biometric path’ for an entirely contactles­s airport experience, technology driven services like self-check in and bag drop kiosks, mobile check-in ports, remote check in facilities in Ajman with more to be added in 2023, amongst other initiative­s. In 2023, we’ll continue advancing these initiative­s and exploring new cutting-edge technologi­es like robotics, artificial intelligen­ce and automation. We recently signed an MoU with the Dubai Future Foundation

to facilitate pilot projects like a robot check-in agent that leverages facial recognitio­n to interact with customers, as well as a robot waiter to serve passengers in our airport lounges. All of these pilot projects aim to deliver seamless experience­s to

We will continue to build on the commitment we made in 2022 to invest US $2 bn in inflight customer experience across all cabins

our customers, in line with our world-class propositio­n as an airline and as a destinatio­n, to ensure our trade agency partners have more unique selling points for Emirates when engaging with travellers.

 ?? Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Gulf, Middle East and Central Asia ?? Adil Al Ghaith
Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Gulf, Middle East and Central Asia Adil Al Ghaith
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