Emirates Airlines says it considers its Accra, Ghana route an important destination within its operations and would monitor development on it and adjust its services to ensure the comfort and convenience of passengers.
The Vice President Commercial Operations at Emirates in charge of Northern and Western Africa, Mr Adil Al Ghaith, told reporters at the airline’s base in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), that the airline deployed the Boeing 777-300 series on the Accra route last year in response to the growing demand on the route.
Having started the Accra route as is hub to West Africa in 2004 with four-times a week flight schedules, Emirates now flies daily to Accra. In addition, it has changed aircraft three times, using bigger and wider body ones on each transition.
“This market is very important to Emirates that is why we are putting more capacity here. We’ll keep our eyes on Ghana and make interventions to respond to demand needs,” Al Ghaith said.
Al Ghaith would not disclose how much or percentage of contribution of the Accra destination to its revenue base, except to say “Ghana has a good contribution within my region and the route is very important to us.”
Several Ghanaians and other nationals rely on Emirates Airlines for transit to countries in the Middle East, the Far East, Asia and Europe, counting on its reliability and convenience.
Dubai, one of the cities that form the UAE, has developed a superior hub concept, with a modern airport, bedding and accommodation, tourism and sight-seeing that makes flying through the Al Maktoum International Airport easy, passenger-friendly and comfortable.
“We have a mix of business and leisure to cater for both those coming to Dubai and other making a transit. We ensure that they have a good stop in and out stop in Dubai with superior services that provide value for money”.
Emirates history
Emirates’ success story began in 1985 with a US$13 million loan from the government of Dubai and two leased aircraft from Air Pakistan.
From its first flight to Karachi, Pakistan, that same year, Emirates now operates to 140 destinations in 79 countries across the world and still counting.
The airline currently has a young aircraft fleet of 212, made up of 200 passenger aircraft and 12 freighters (for cargo).
Ghana, the 73rd destination for Emirates with four-times a week scheduled flights; the airline now flies daily to Accra since 2006, where it leverages other regional carriers. The airline flies to 24 other destinations in Africa.
Emirates freights an average of 15 tonnes of cargo daily on each flight into Accra. Items freighted out of Ghana include seafood, fruits and vegetables, which are helping to balance the trade relations between Ghana and the UAE.
Outlook
Last year, the company opened nine more destinations, including its Equatorial Guinea route.
This year, Al Ghaith said three more destinations would be added. This includes Kiev, Ukraine, already opened in the second week of January, with two more on the radar: Taipei, Taiwan in February and Boston, USA on March 10th.
“This year, we want to strengthen existing destinations,” he said, adding that some might need more flight schedules, while others might demand increased capacity.
The vice president in charge of Northern and Western Africa said the airline was doing everything possible to keep its services at the top with good in-flight entertainment.
He said the biggest secret of Emirates Airlines was to focus on what they did and not look at what others were doing.