Emirates recently opened an exclusive new First and Business Class check-in terminal at Dubai International Airport, catering for high-flying premium customers. The facility is designed to speed departing travelers onto flights. Purpose-built between Departures and Arrivals, it is the only separate airport terminal in the world catering to premium flyers, according to a company press release.
As well as six First and 10 Business Class check-ins, the 1,600 square meter facility offers eight express check-in counters for flyers with hand luggage only. The terminal has separate access to fast-track immigration and security channels. Facilities include internet kiosks and a facility for members of Skywards, the Emirates and Sri Lankan frequent flyer scheme.
The new terminal is expected to handle some 400,000 first and business class customers a year. Access is restricted to passengers flying Emirates First or Business Class, SriLankan Business Class and Skywards Gold and Silver members regardless of which class they fly in.
In addition, Emirates’ present Business Class lounge is being expanded and the airline is preparing designs for its own dedicated passenger concourse beside the current terminal, with 28 departure gates handling 20 million people a year. Construction is expected to start next year.
Long-range Airbus A340-500 aircraft entering service from next June will allow Emirates to start services to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Other services are also being introduced on existing routes this year, notably to London, Paris, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.
From 2006, the first of its fleet of 22 new 575-seat Airbus A380 double-deck airliners (two of them freighters) will enter service with Emirates. Emirates expects to double its workforce to more than 35,000 by 2010 as its fleet of 39 Airbuses and Boeings, already one of the world's youngest with an average age of only 37 months, grows to 100 by 2010.
Emirates is now the world's 25th largest airline and the fastest-growing. Launched in 1985, Emirates carried nearly seven million people last year and earned record profits of 468.2 million Emirati dirhams, ($127 million), up nearly 14 percent on the year before. It has won more than 200 customer service awards. In November it announced orders for $15 billion worth of aircraft—22 Airbus A380 with 10 options, 25 Boeing 777s, eight A340-600s and three A330-200s, plus six A340-500s and 10 options already on order. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
