Emirates spreads wings into India

EMIRATES   AVIATION   INDIA

India - Emirates Airlines is stepping up efforts to expand into india after bringing the double decker Airbus A-380 passenger aircraft into the country.

"Last year, it was exceptional and everybody suffered. I believe the load from India helped us reduce the effect of the recession. There was double digit growth in India last year and hence India is top of our priority," says Majid Al Mualia, senior vice president of commercial operations in West Asia and Indian Ocean of Emirates.

There are now 54,000 seats and airline's load factor is about 83%, Economic Times reports.

The airline is now looking at a possible growth of 10-15% in the load factor, with an increase in hiring more staff for operations in India as one of the factors.

"By end of 2009, we saw businesses coming back even though people were talking about three to four years to recover. I think it was earlier than everybody expected. And right now, we are in a stage that we can say that business is back to normal for Emirates," says Mualia.

The airline is mulling opening new destinations to its existing networks, and will do so once it achieves this year's target.

On a side note, The Emirates Group is also looking to hire more, especially for its call centre in India.

"As of now we are having about 900 people working in India but this number will go up," says Mualia.

The airline is looking at a 15% growth in passenger load during the current fiscal year.

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