Emirates, the world’s largest international airline, delivered another year of trendsetting product and service initiatives across its fleet and network to make flying better for its customers.
In the last 12 months, Emirates carried over 59 million passengers on over 3,700 passenger flights on average per week. The airline proudly served a diverse menu of over 66 million meals on its flights departing Dubai, and moved close to 36 million pieces of baggage in Dubai to its global network of 157 destinations.
In 2018, Emirates operated over 192,000 flights, with its fleet of 274 aircraft travelling more than 908 million kilometres around the globe.
Reflecting on 2018’s milestones, Sir Tim Clark, president, Emirates airline, said: Our ambitions have always been driven by a commitment to continual improvement, to make the customer experience better and to make our business operations more efficient.
We had our challenges in 2018, however, we continued to maximise opportunities by deploying our capacity to best serve customer demand, keeping a close watch on our costs, utilising technology to improve business performance, as well as developing more customer-centric products and services to provide our passengers with greater choice. Our customers remain at the heart of everything we do, and our continual investments in the business will be the foundation on which we will build our future growth and continue to deliver solid results.”
The year began with Emirates setting out on a $150 million programme to refurbish its Boeing 777-200LR fleet. These 10 newly refurbished aircraft are set in a two-class configuration, offering 38 business class seats with wider seats laid out in a 2-2-2 configuration and 264 seats in economy class. The revamp also brought airier and more spacious cabins throughout the aircraft.
Emirates is now planning for the next generation cabin design of its Boeing 777X programme. On its new generation A380s entering service from 2020 onwards, Emirates is planning the deployment of its premium economy product, featuring a bespoke design and an array of experience-rich touches.
In March, Emirates celebrated 10 years of mobile connectivity onboard as it continues to be at the forefront of innovation with inflight connectivity and entertainment. During 2018, over 12 million passengers connected to Wi-Fi on board Emirates.
Over the summer, football fans eagerly cheered on their national teams during the FIFA World Cup on board 175 Emirates aircraft equipped with Live TV.
In 2019, 50 more aircraft will be retrofitted with Live TV, providing even more choice for customers to watch live sports, breaking news and much more. Emirates also offers over 1,000 movies as part of its over 4,000-channel selection on ice, its award-winning in-flight entertainment system. The most popular movie on board Emirates in 2018 was Black Panther. Emirates was also the first to launch the classic movie E.T The Extra Terrestrial.
Emirates introduced home check-in in April, a new service allowing customers in Dubai to check in for their flights from the comfort of their own homes, hotel or office, and have their luggage transported prior to their flight.
Emirates will soon launch the world’s first biometric path offering customers a smooth and seamless airport journey at the airline’s hub in Dubai International airport.
In line with its ‘fly better’ brand promise, Emirates is bringing in a brand new fleet of high-tech buses for airside passenger operations, with a full fleet of 128 buses to be operational by 2020.
The airline has also expanded its lounge network with the opening of new facilities in Cairo taking the number of Emirates lounges to 42. The airline also completed the refurbishment of its Rome lounge.