• English Site
• >Business
• >Airbus
• >

  Doing the Mexican Wave for an Oil Sheikh: Airbus Delivers First A380 from Hamburg

Doing the Mexican Wave for an Oil Sheikh Airbus Delivers First A380 from Hamburg

By Hasnain Kazim in Hamburg

Part 2: Emirates and Dubai Aim for the Sky

The ascent of Emirates has gone just as smoothly. No other company embodies the rise of Dubai as much as this carrier. The company started offering flights in 1985 with two aircraft leased from Pakistan International Airlines. Back then, the Pakistanis spoke of "development aid," and the airline industry mocked the Arbas: Dubai? What kind of desert kingdom is that?

But today Dubai is an economic powerhouse and a major center in the Arab World. And as airlines in the US axe jobs, European carriers complain about sinking passenger numbers and others fret over rising oil prices, Emirates is becoming an airline of superlatives. It has one of the youngest fleets in the world, the lowest fuel consumption per passenger and it is Airbus' biggest A380 customer, with 58 orders. In that regard, it is far ahead of Singapore Airlines. The Asian carrier, as the Sheikh quietly noted, took possession of the first A380 but has ordered only 19 of the aircraft. By comparison, German flag carrier Lufthansa has ordered only 15 of the planes.

Emirates has grown to become one of the 10 largest carriers in the world. One year ago, the emirate of Dubai -- in the form of its international investment arm Dubai International Capital -- also acquired a 3.12 percent stake in Airbus parent company EADS.

The airline industry crisis seems to have had no affect on the Arab company. And Emirates isn't the only Arab carrier with ambitious goals. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, which was only formed in 2003 and currently still makes a loss, has ordered 10 A380s and has designs on becoming the self-described "world's best airline." Meanwhile, Qatar Airways, based in the oil- and gas-rich emirate of Qatar, is also planning on expanding.

A new airport is currently being built in Dubai. It will be, of course, the world's biggest and sports the self-confident name "Dubai World Central." Up to 150 million passengers are expected to pass through the airport every year -- more than London's Heathrow and Germany's Frankfurt combined. The airport, with its 12 runways, will come into operation in 2009 after only two years of construction.

This speed and this megalomania worries airlines like Lufthansa. In Frankfurt, where Germany's biggest airline has its base, arguments have raged for years over the construction of a single additional runway. The company also faces other threats to its competitivenes: One key trade union representing its employees went on strike on Monday, the company's wages are already high and most of the airports it operates from in Germany have bans on late-night flights. Emirates doesn't have any of these problems.

Thanks to Dubai's copious oil reserves, it also has plenty of capital available at its disposal. European carriers are already losing customers to Arab airlines. And with Emirates recording double digit growth rates, it comes as little surprise that Lufthansa is lobbying the government hard in Berlin to reject requests by Emirates to offer more connections from German airports to Dubai.

On Tuesday, the new A380 will be flown to Dubai. Starting August 1, it is expected to begin passenger service between Dubai, New York, London, Sydney and Auckland. But it's unlikely it will see Hamburg again in the near future.

For reasons of data protection and privacy, your IP address will only be stored if you are a registered user of Facebook and you are currently logged in to the service. For more detailed information, please click on the "i" symbol.

Post to other social networks:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•