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Emirates: new look for a global airline

KARACHI: Emirates, Airline of the Year 2000, will fly its new corporate livery at ITB Berlin Ñ a stylish and contemporary look for an airline set to become a global carrier in the next two to three years. The ITB Berlin takes place from March 11 to 15.

Within the first quarter of 2000, Emirates has already made headlines with the launch of the much-awaited service to Bahrain, and the announcement of new services to Sydney and Entebbe later in March.

Emirates' Chairman, H H Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who will lead an airline delegation to this year's ITB, said: "I envisage that by the year 2003, we should be ready to commence services into the North America and place ourselves among the global carriers of the world."

Preparations for this are already underway. New aircraft orders will deliver to Emirates the world's longest range aireplane Ñ the Airbus A340-500 ÑÊbetween 2002 and 2003. The A340-500 will help Emirates realise its ambitions of non-stop flights Dubai and the US West Coast or Australia.

Emirates has six A340-500 on firm order, with 10 on option. Other new aircraft due to join the fleet are another 11 A330-200 between now and 2003, and two more Boeing 777-300s by the first quarter of 2001.

Fleet expansion is in tandem with a fleet renewal programme, where the A330-200s are replacing the A310-300s and A300-600Rs.

This will ensure Emirates maintains one of the world's youngest and most modern fleets. ITB Berlin will present Emirates with vital opportunities to emphasise the airline's new century goals to the world's travel industry leaders.

The launch of the airline's frequent flyer programme, further development of its hotel business and the move to e-commerce set the tone for Emirate's business discussions at ITB Berlin. Emirates-owned Al Maha Desert Resort, which celebrates its first anniversary on March 22, is another of the airline's success stories that will strike a high profile presence at the Berlin mart.

Sheikh Ahmed said: "Emirates has many exciting projects which will be of direct benefit to our associates in the travel industry and to our customers. We consider the ITB Berlin a marvellous arena to tell the world of these plans."ÑPR