how come Emirates does not consider Newark (EWR) airport for service in USA? It would offer them a competitive edge against its main rivals who only fly to JFK. I live in the city and when I go to local ethnic agencies to shop for good deals all of them have large Emirates posters with their flagship Burj Al Arab hotel plastered in it. With a large Indian, Pakistani, African and Arab community residing in the suburbs and around the main city limits, isn't there a viable business case for the airline to seriously consider Newark flights in 2010 at least?
DXB-ACC-ABJ-ACC-DXB is not a big loss maker for Emirates. If it was, why were flights increased to daily in December and why are flights being upgraded to B77W in December 2009. The route is profitable for Emirates.
If it is profitable one would like you to inform the Emirates sales reps in Houston who in November informed few of us gathered at a media gathering that the route is not a money maker for the airline. If it was then dont you think Accra would have a terminator flight rather than an add on to Abidjan? I have no idea why capacity is being lifted from an Airbus A 340-300 to Boeing 777-300ER but since you have the tools to prove this then it would be best to back it up with the routes load factor in both directions in 2008 to substantiate your claim.
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A lot of your comments are misleading stallone (or should i say Behramjee, or Sanath and any other names you are using).
my friend I sent you a personal message regarding your accusation which im sorry to say is wrong.
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I don't think you can call EK's product on the 772As and 773s a disgrace. The aircraft have all been recently refurbished. On regional runs flat beds are not necessary on sectors of upto 5hrs length. And nearly all the 773s now sport the Sky Cruiser seats in F, lie-flats in J and new economy seats in Y. And of course all 777s (ex-2 aircraft which should be upgraded by March) have ICE. I would hardly call that a disgrace. The A332s may have a dated product, but its not that bad for short/medium haul flights. These aircraft will begin to be phased out soon anyway so it doesnt make sense to refurbish them.
there is no question that Emirates inflight entertainment system is very good offering a selection unmatched by any airline. my main issue is with the type of seats they have in f/j classes on the regional flights which i have flown few times which is very inferior compared to what Etihad and Qatar Airways offer on board their A 330 and B 777-300ER fleet. My last flights on EK were in June 2008 flying an A 330-200 to BOM in business class and then a Boeing 777-300 BKK-DXB in the same month. the seat width in particular is about 5 inches less than EY/QR not to mention the recline as well.
I see the 3rd flight reduction to JNB and he Durban flights have been announced. I wonder where our friend has gone that said CPT would be ditched and Durban would "never" happen?
Johannesburg - “Following a review of our operations, where we constantly look at factors such as aircraft availability and market requirements, we are pleased to announce that the temporary suspension of the 3rd daily Johannesburg service from February 1st 2009 has been lifted. EK766 will operate on a scaled back basis - three times a week - from February 1st to March 29th. The third daily flight will return to its full seven days a week operation from March 30th. We are pleased that once again, we can offer our passengers the full, triple daily choice of flights from Johannesburg and the convenience it brings. We remain committed to our services and customers in South Africa.”
Durban Statement - Issued by Emirates Airline
“Emirates is pleased to announce the re-introduction of Durban to its network with flights geared to start on October 1st this year. The service had been due to begin in December of last year, but was deferred after a review of aircraft deployment during a period of fuel price volatility.
The addition of Durban to our existing destinations of Cape Town and Johannesburg will mean Emirates covers South Africa’s three largest cities.
As of October 1st, the airline will offer 35 weekly flights out of South Africa, non-stop to Dubai. This includes three daily flights from Johannesburg and a daily service from Durban and Cape Town, giving passengers even greater convenience as we head towards FIFA 2010.”
If it is profitable one would like you to inform the Emirates sales reps in Houston who in November informed few of us gathered at a media gathering that the route is not a money maker for the airline. If it was then dont you think Accra would have a terminator flight rather than an add on to Abidjan? I have no idea why capacity is being lifted from an Airbus A 340-300 to Boeing 777-300ER but since you have the tools to prove this then it would be best to back it up with the routes load factor in both directions in 2008 to substantiate your claim.
Actually, African flights are supposed to be strong performers because there's strong O&D within the Gulf and indeed Dubai itself, and strong business links with India, the East and especially China. I suppose cargo would also do well on such routes.
I presume the reason the route is tagged to Abdijan could be becase of bilateral restrictions or aircraft restrictions (they don't have enough aircraft to do DXB-ACC and DXB-ABJ seperately). It could even be a case of where the ACC and ABJ do not warrant seperate daily flights but the current routing of DXB-ACC-ABJ is yielding perfectly respectable load factors (which is the most obvious scenario).
how come Emirates does not consider Newark (EWR) airport for service in USA? It would offer them a competitive edge against its main rivals who only fly to JFK. I live in the city and when I go to local ethnic agencies to shop for good deals all of them have large Emirates posters with their flagship Burj Al Arab hotel plastered in it. With a large Indian, Pakistani, African and Arab community residing in the suburbs and around the main city limits, isn't there a viable business case for the airline to seriously consider Newark flights in 2010 at least?
Emirates probably does not consider EWR because a) it already serves the city indirectly from a codeshare flown by Continental as LGW-EWR. B) EK already serves JFK which would need to be doing at least 3x daily before it considers adding EWR c) EK would probably look to serve the bigger North American cities like ORD, SEA, YUL, YYZ daily before deploying aircraft into Newark.
Never say never, but Newark isn't on the short-term list AFAIK. Maybe Continental will soon start EWR-DXB, who knows?
If it is profitable one would like you to inform the Emirates sales reps in Houston who in November informed few of us gathered at a media gathering that the route is not a money maker for the airline. If it was then dont you think Accra would have a terminator flight rather than an add on to Abidjan?...
Crew safety immediately springs to mind. While things have been "OK" in ABJ / Ivory Coast for the past couple of years, it is still a very unstable country. EK may well not want their crews to overnight there hence the turn-around. Violence is one thing (e.g. Lagos), but political coups and fractious governments/militias etc are another.
So it is quite possible that the Abidjan tag works out quite well for EK.
Programs: EK Gold, BMI Gold, Virgin Gold, FlyingBlue Silver
Posts: 28
Durban will be served by A330. 9 hours on that nightmare of a plane - ouch!
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Originally Posted by nipper64
I see the 3rd flight reduction to JNB and he Durban flights have been announced. I wonder where our friend has gone that said CPT would be ditched and Durban would "never" happen?
Johannesburg - “Following a review of our operations, where we constantly look at factors such as aircraft availability and market requirements, we are pleased to announce that the temporary suspension of the 3rd daily Johannesburg service from February 1st 2009 has been lifted. EK766 will operate on a scaled back basis - three times a week - from February 1st to March 29th. The third daily flight will return to its full seven days a week operation from March 30th. We are pleased that once again, we can offer our passengers the full, triple daily choice of flights from Johannesburg and the convenience it brings. We remain committed to our services and customers in South Africa.”
Durban Statement - Issued by Emirates Airline
“Emirates is pleased to announce the re-introduction of Durban to its network with flights geared to start on October 1st this year. The service had been due to begin in December of last year, but was deferred after a review of aircraft deployment during a period of fuel price volatility.
The addition of Durban to our existing destinations of Cape Town and Johannesburg will mean Emirates covers South Africa’s three largest cities.
As of October 1st, the airline will offer 35 weekly flights out of South Africa, non-stop to Dubai. This includes three daily flights from Johannesburg and a daily service from Durban and Cape Town, giving passengers even greater convenience as we head towards FIFA 2010.”
Programs: Emirates Skywards Gold, BA Executive Club Gold, AA Advantage Gold, VS Flying Club Silver
Posts: 342
A pair of cities that may operate with a combined service doesnt mean that they are not profitable or big loss makers. If one follows your "theory" then many routes on the Emirates network that operate linked services today (e.g. DXB-TIP-TUN, DXB-ADD-EBB, DXB-BKK-HKG, DXB-CMB-MLE just to name a few) would be loss makers. And routes that operated linked services in the past such as DXB-NBO-DAR, DXB-ZRH-MAN, DXB-KHI-DAC etc. were loss makers. In fact there are many routes on the Emirates network today that are profitable and successful and used to operate as part of linked services in the past such as DAR, LOS, MAN, ATH to name a few.
What you fail to understand is Emirates strategy -- many of these routes when they start don't have the traffic volumes to support a dedicated terminator service but they are commercially viable. Once the route is started and traffic builds as Emirates establishes its presence in these markets they can turn profitable in 12 months. Then over time Emirates tend to put on larger aircraft (e.g. 332/343 to 772/773/77W) on these routes and once there is sufficient demand to support a stand alone service the route is de-linked. The most recent example of this is DXB-TIP-TUN which will be separated to 2x dedicated services to TIP and TUN. On DXB-ACC-ABJ the loads are still skewed to ACC but that doesn't mean ABJ. In fact Emirates picks up a lot of pax in ABJ not only from Ivory Coast but neighbouring West African countries as EK is the primary East bound carrier, particularly for a lot of traders. In fact yields are also quite good. I think that the next step after the 77W will probably a de-link. And there is a chance that we see Emirates operating DXB-ACC stand-alone and DXB-ABJ-DKR or some combination of that.
I do not rely on sales reps for my information, but get it from more reliable sources. And i dont need to provide load info to substantiate my claim. If you don't believe my "claims" then take all the other info i post on this board with the same level of doubt.
Emirates A330 hard product isnt as good as EY and QR -- i dont disagree here, however remember these aircraft are on average 6 years old, with some of the older aircraft nearly 10 years old. EY and QR's aircraft are a lot younger. Furthermore, Emirates operate widebodies versus EY and QR who tend to operate mostly A320 series aircraft on short haul flights. But the Emirates product is not "unacceptable". On regional runs i feel it does the job. I flew DXB-BOM in December 2008 on an A332 in J and i hardly noticed given that in the 2.5 hrs of the flight the time flies. I agree that on 5hr+ sectors such as those to Europe the A330 can be uncomfortable and uncompetitive from a hard product standpoint. You also need to remember that Emirates thought about refurbishing the A330 fleet a year or two ago, but this will not happen as these aircraft will begin to be phased out in a year or so. The B773 you got on your BKK flight was one of the 3x high density aircraft, which are being refurbished. The last plane should be done by April.
In fact with the refurbished 773s and 772s of Emirates are excellent for regional flights. Again, I flew back DEL-DXB in F in Dec 2008 on a 772 and had a great flight on the SkyCruiser seats.
Rgds
Emirates777
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Originally Posted by stallone
If it is profitable one would like you to inform the Emirates sales reps in Houston who in November informed few of us gathered at a media gathering that the route is not a money maker for the airline. If it was then dont you think Accra would have a terminator flight rather than an add on to Abidjan? I have no idea why capacity is being lifted from an Airbus A 340-300 to Boeing 777-300ER but since you have the tools to prove this then it would be best to back it up with the routes load factor in both directions in 2008 to substantiate your claim.
my friend I sent you a personal message regarding your accusation which im sorry to say is wrong.
there is no question that Emirates inflight entertainment system is very good offering a selection unmatched by any airline. my main issue is with the type of seats they have in f/j classes on the regional flights which i have flown few times which is very inferior compared to what Etihad and Qatar Airways offer on board their A 330 and B 777-300ER fleet. My last flights on EK were in June 2008 flying an A 330-200 to BOM in business class and then a Boeing 777-300 BKK-DXB in the same month. the seat width in particular is about 5 inches less than EY/QR not to mention the recline as well.
Programs: Emirates Skywards Gold, BA Executive Club Gold, AA Advantage Gold, VS Flying Club Silver
Posts: 342
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Originally Posted by safari_7
EK766 - the 3X weekly service operates on what days?
Tue, Thu and Sun operated by A340-300.
On Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat the A343 will continue to operate to Nagoya.
When the Nagoya service stops at the end of March, EK765/766 will operate daily using A343 until 1 October 2009 when the service will switch over to Suites equipped B77W.
Programs: Emirates Skywards Gold, BA Executive Club Gold, AA Advantage Gold, VS Flying Club Silver
Posts: 342
Quote:
Originally Posted by offshore
Emirates 777
Any news on upgrade of plane on EK35/36 Newcastle. Many business class passengers are complaining about old plane. Also are EK happy with this route ?? It seems to have cooled recently.
Initially it was planned to upgrade NCL to B772 in Winter 2009 but with loads cooling this has been deferred. Instead the 772 will be used to expand India services. Perhaps in 2010 they may upgrade the route to a 772.
