Emirates is confident that its recovery will continue into 2022. The comments came from the airline’s CEO and came despite the threat of the Omicron variant, which is beginning to cause a hiccup in the aviation recovery.
All in all, Emirates has seen a substantial recovery throughout 2021. While many airlines are just starting to bring their Airbus A380s back into service, Emirates has already gone one step further. Around half of the airline’s fleet is now back in the skies, alongside the entire Boeing 777 fleet comprised of 133 aircraft. This has allowed the airline to rebuild its network to 128 cities.
Confident about the future
Despite the current threat of the Omicron variant, Emirates is confident that its recovery will continue into 2022. The airline has curtailed its network slightly. It has suspended flights to several countries in Africa over the variant, though routes to other countries with a high circulation of the variant, such as the UK, remain open.
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Commenting on expectations for the new year, Emirates’ CEO, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, remarked,
“Despite the recent rise of the Omicron variant and the slight slowdown it brought to our network, we are going into 2022 with optimism. We’ve built up some great momentum this year and expect business growth pick up speed in 2022.
Al Maktoum added,
Aviation has always been resilient, and we will continue to work with our industry partners to build back better for our customers and communities.”
A good year for the giant of the skies
Compared to a year ago, Emirates is ending the year in a relatively good position in terms of its network and fleet. A year ago, just a handful of the airline’s Airbus A380 had been taken out of storage. While the airline has now scrapped its first A380, over half the fleet is now back in service.
Bringing the giant of the skies back was inevitable for Emirates. The airline only operates the Boeing 777 and Airbus A380. When the entire Boeing 777 fleet had been brought back into service, adding Airbus A380 flights was the only way to add more routes, frequencies, and capacities.
The Airbus A380 has also created another opportunity for Emirates this year. Back in January, the airline launched its new premium economy cabin onboard its newest Airbus A380s. This proved to be a huge success, with the airline even bringing its final A380 deliveries forward to increase the availability of the cabin.
Moving into 2022, the airline will commence a massive retrofit program to bring the cabin to older aircraft. With this in mind, the airline is eyeing Summer 2022 for the cabin’s official sales launch.
What do you expect from Emirates in 2022? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!
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