The A380 is finally coming to America! Emirates will run flights between New York and Dubai, starting August 1.
The massive aircraft won't be making all the runs between the two cities, but it will be the first time the A380 flies into the US in commercial service. Elsewhere, you can ride it between Singapore and both Sydney and London on Singapore Airlines.
Airlines are failing around the world. From Hong Kong to the United States and as far off as South Africa, rising fuel costs and a glut of other excuses are sending airlines to the wall. But there's always gotta be someone who plays by different rules and that seems to be Emirates: they've just announced that their profit rose by 62 percent in the last year!
So how come Emirates is raking in the cash while everybody else is going broke? They just keep increasing their capacity for both passengers and cargo, and they're filling it up, too. That got them to a $1.36 billion profit for 2007.
Emirates is planning to keep getting bigger and bigger, with a total of 58 A380s on order. They're also thinking of selling off between 20 and 30 percent of the government-owned business to the public. If you're nervous about booking other airlines, Emirates seems like the one that's still going to be flying when your departure date actually comes 'round.
Even though the Middle East already has five low cost carriers in operation, the UAE has decided that it needs another one. In a slightly complicated-sounding business arrangement, Emirates is going to help the government set up a Dubai-based budget airline--which doesn't yet have a name--and one of Emirates' current VPs will then resign from Emirates to run the new, independent-from-Emirates airline.
The new airline will use some single-aisle aircraft (currently rare in the Gulf) and will fly to various destinations less than five hours away from Dubai. Exactly how low cost it'll be is also a bit unclear. All they've said is that "services should be priced on the living and economic conditions to suit their income."
It's all supposed to be up and running within the next year, so watch this space for more info. We're curious about a name: Dub-Air, perhaps, although that makes it sound like a Dubious Airline. We're guessing they'll choose something else.
With all the excitement over on-board WiFi announcements here in the United States, it's easy to forget that carriers abroad have already wrapped up their testing of in-flight Internet. More than a couple airlines have had passengers successfully texting their sucker friends "Guess where I am right now?!" Among them are Qantas, Ryanair, Air France, Singapore Airlines and Emirates.
These carriers are using a satellite technology developed by a company called EMS Technologies. Because the system is space- rather than land-based, passengers can use cell phones, PDAs and laptops over the ocean. That's a major plus for carriers like Qantas and Singapore.
While pricing is still, ahem, up in the air, we can't imagine it will be that much. And for a lot of people, EMS's CEO realizes, the cost won't really even be a factor:
If I'm flying from Paris to New York and Air France lets me use my Blackberry in-flight while United Airlines doesn't, which one do you think I'm going to choose?
So that's why you haven't been able to upload your photos at the Internet cafe in Jodhpur. Two big underwater communications cables under the Mediterranean got damaged yesterday, hampering web access from Egypt to India. The slow-down scared more than just photo-happy tourists: Passengers on Emirates Airlines, with its headquarters in Dubai, feared their flights would be grounded.
Still, airline reps say there aren't problems with scheduled flights out of the region. But that isn't what Dubai International Airport workers are saying; they've reported problems on the ground since the cables were cut.
Not everyone in the Middle East is without YouTube, though. Israel is on a different undersea cable, and folks in Lebanon and Iraq are both able to get online. Lucky: You'll still be able to research your Euphrates River shark fishing expedition.
If there was just one special luxury we could wish for on a long-haul flight, it would be the ability to have a shower shortly before landing. Washing away the dirt and grime of bad sleep, screaming babies and depressing in-flight movies would make a world of difference on arrival.
So we are quite excited to hear that Emirates are planning to provide showers for their first-class passengers when they get their first A380 in August this year. The facility will require one ton of freshwater to be carried on board, and the showers will be cleaned after every use.
Sure, we're not talking environmentally-friendly here, and being in first class will put these showers out of our reach anyway. But the idea of landing refreshed after twenty or thirty hours of long-haul travel is really, well, refreshing.
In a time where Skybus and other low cost carriers are aiming to take no frills to the extreme, Emirates Airlines is bucking the how-low-can-you-go trend and going top shelf:
"Passengers' expectations on long-haul flights are different," says Dermot Mannion, an executive at the airline. "The low-fare model will not work on long flights. Passengers want good service, comfort and certainly some food."
First-class features include; vanity mirrors, 19-in. video screens with 150 selections and in-flight e-mail. There is a personal minibar, the ever popular in-flight mood lighting that ends with a ceiling display of the Dubai night sky. Hot, young, flight attendants (we are not making this up, they tout their "young beautiful staff".
The price of a first-class seat from New York to Dubai: $8,999. Yeah, as per usual, you have to pay dearly for quality. However, look how much fun the passenger who brought us the above video tour is having just pushing buttons to open and close parts of his "capsule". We even hear a bit of laughter during the video tour--does anyone remember laugh-ter? On a long haul flight?
Earlier this week Halliburton announced it was moving corporate headquarters to Dubai. Who knows what, if any, tax or political implications the move might entail. However, what we do know is Houston, Halliburton's current headquarters, is world's away from Dubai in every way imaginable.
Dubai is hot, and hardly because of Halliburton. Emirates, the countries premiere airline recently placed an order for Airbus A380s, yet another sign of the coming Dubai tourism dominance.
Below we have put together a list of the five top tourist attractions for Haliburton employees and executives--to help them feel at home in the Middle East.
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