Emirates to launch Low Cost Airline??? WHY!?!?
 

Dubai to launch low-cost airline

updateDate = "Wednesday, 19 March 2008 04:00"document.getElementById('crumbs-dir').innerHTML = 'TRANSPORTATION / NEWS /'by James Cordahi and Lin Noueihed on Tuesday, 18 March 2008

Dubai plans to start a low-cost carrier within a year to tap travel demand in the Gulf, and is looking to equip its fleet with single-aisle aircraft.

The carrier, which as yet has no name, will be part of state-owned Emirates Group and will fly to destinations within four and a half hours of the Gulf Arab state, Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum told newswire Reuters on Tuesday.

Emirates Group also owns Emirates airline, is the largest Arab carrier and the fastest growing in the world.
The fleet will be equipped either with Boeing 737 aircraft or Airbus A320s, Sheikh Ahmed said, after state news agency Wam reported a decree from the ruler of Dubai announcing the carrier's creation.

"There is a need for it in the region," Sheikh Ahmed said. "We are looking at the market, and we will either buy or lease, depending on the price, and other things."

In November, Emirates ordered $23.4 billion of aircraft from Airbus and Boeing, with options for 50 more, valuing the total potential order at almost $35 billion.

The new carrier will be the sixth in the region that is low-cost and will compete with Sharjah-based Air Arabia, the Middle East's largest low cost airline. Air Arabia was also the first in the region to be privately owned.

"The market is sufficiently big for all of us and it will complement us," Air Arabia Chief Executive Adel Ali told Reuters by telephone. "I am pleased such an airline has seen our business model as a success and decided to do the same."

Air Arabia in November ordered 34 planes from Airbus worth $3.5 billion.

Emirates, the largest customer for Airbus's A380 aircraft, plans to take delivery of 246 planes worth more than $60 billion during the next few years. It does not operate any single-aisle planes.

Kuwait's Jazeera Airways is the only other listed airline in the Gulf and uses Dubai as a hub.

Wam said on Tuesday Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum decreed the low-cost carrier should price its services based on "the economic and living conditions to suit their incomes".

Ghaith Al-Ghaith, executive vice president for commercial operations at Emirates, will be the new carrier's CEO, Sheikh Ahmed said.

About 35 million people live in the Gulf of which about a quarter are foreigners, with many of those unskilled workers from South and East Asia.

Dubai airport, the Middle East's busiest, handled 34.34 million passengers last year, up 19% over 2006, according to its website.

The emirate is building another airport capable of handling 120 million people. (Reuters)



http://www.arabianbusiness.com/51405...w-cost-airline


Has Emirates related any information to the pilots at Big Emirates and how this is going to affect them?

Have the pilots been told anything? Nah, we're like a bunch of mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed.......

As far as why - there has been a proliferation of low cost carriers in the area and they are doing quite well. Emirates has been competing with these carriers using a full service product and while our cost base is pretty low, it's just not as low as a carrier that specializes in low cost.

The carrier will not be a part of The Emirates Group but it will have the same owners, same chairman and the CEO is the EVP of Emirates Commercial Department. They originally will fly separate routes from Emirates but you can expect close cooperation between the two in planning their routes. I would also expect that over time, the short-medium haul flying will migrate to the new carrier and Emirates will concentrate on the longer-haul, high yield routes.

It is (IMHO) a shrewd move by the government to maximize the profits of both carriers. If a business starts to try to serve too many different constituencies, they end up losing their focus and doing nothing very well. I think that has been happening at Emirates. We have been serving some low-yield markets with a full service product and in an effort to compete effectively, the quality of that service has suffered. This will allow each carrier to concentrate on what they do well. They will retain their focus and make more money while they are at it.

If it gets rid of the red-eye Hyderabad I am all for it.
If it does routes we at EK do not do....where exactly don't we fly again?:)

interesting. on a flight from Bahrain to Dubai (35 minutes or so), on a full A330, the poor cabin crew had to serve everybody breakfast. I couldnt believe it, but they managed to do it. Maybe that LCC thing will be good for these shorter flights.

Will the pay be the same?

Dear Gillegan:
 

:confused: I have been short listed by Emirates and I need to get some information about Dubai, I am Currently flying a Challenger 300 in the States as a chief pilot of a small part 91 company, pay is Ok, but I do feel that I am not going to growth any more as a pilot carreer, I need to get some advice, I did move out of my country 5 years a go to the United States, my two kids were born in USA one is 13 and the other is 11 but I am afraid of not making the wright desition, please if you have timeI would really apreciate it and talk to you about Dubai and the Emirates live