Emirates Airlines

Emirates Airline is the flag carrier of United Arab Emirates and a major airline of the Middle East. Its key hub is the Dubai International Airport, which connects it with an extensive network of international routes. The airline is a subsidiary of Emirates group, a public international corporation which also holds the honor of operating four of the longest non-stop commercial flights - from Dubai to Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Houston, and San Francisco. It offers extensive air travel in UAE and Middle East. The airline also maintains a separate cargo division, by the name of Emirates SkyCargo. It is amongst the fastest growing airlines of the world, which earned huge revenue of $500 million in 1993.

History
Emirates Airlines was founded on March 1985, by the royal family of Dubai. In fact, two of the initial aircrafts for the airline were provided by Dubai Royal Air wing. Its first flight took off on October 25, 1985, from Dubai to Karachi. Thereafter, Emirates Airlines reached Delhi and Mumbai. Within the first nine months of its existence, it started showing profits. The airline launched services to Colombo, Chaka, Amman and Cairo in 1986. It kicked off non-stop services to London Gatwick in 1987 and also added Frankfurt, Singapore and Male to its network later on.

The Gulf War had its impact on Emirates Airlines and its business as well. However, it was the only airline of the region that continued operations even in the last ten days of the war. By the end of 1987, Emirates was serving 11 destinations. On April 1, 1998, Emirates Airlines acquired a financial stake of 40% in Air Lanka, along with a management contract, and subsequently changed its name to Sri Lankan Airlines. At the Paris Air Show in June 2003, Emirates announced the largest aircraft order in aviation history, worth US$19 billion, adding 71 new aircraft. It is now the main launch customer for two innovative ultra-modern aircraft - A340-600 HGW and A380 double-decker super-jumbos.

Destinations Covered
Emirates Airline covers 101 destinations, in 60 countries of the world. It flies to Canada, U.S, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. In Europe, it serves France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, England, Switzerland, Turkey and Malta. The airline carries passengers to destinations like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Philippines in Asia and Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Libya, Angola, Kenya, Mauritius, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana in Africa.

Fleet
Emirates Airlines maintains a fleet 127 aircrafts, consisting of Airbus A330-200, Airbus A340-300, Airbus A340-500, Airbus A380-800, Boeing 777-200, Boeing 777-200ER, Boeing 777-200LR, Boeing 777-300, and Boeing 777-300ER. The airline reviews its fleet frequently, in keeping with its policy of maintaining a young fleet. In 2008, Emirates became the second airline to fly Airbus 380-800, after Singapore Airlines. It has also ordered for 58 Airbus A380-800, making it the largest customer of this airbus. The airline�s utilization of its aircrafts is the highest in the industry, amounting to 13.7 hours in a day.

Achievements
Emirates Airlines is one of the top 10 carriers in the world, on the basis of revenue, passenger kilometers. It is also the largest airline in the Middle East, in terms of revenue, fleet size, and passengers carried. The airline is the seventh-largest in the world, in terms of international passengers carried. It holds the status of world's fourth-largest airlines, in terms of scheduled international passenger-kilometers flown. In 2009, Emirates was voted the fifth best airline in the world by research consultancy firm Skytrax, the earlier positions being ninth (2008), ninth (2007), fifth (2006) and third (2005).