Emirates in 30th consecutive profit year

ITREALMS:

The Emirates Group has announced its 30th consecutive year of profit and steady business expansion, reports ITRealms.

Made available to ITRealms, Emirates Group in its 2017-18 Annual Report, posted a profit of AED 4.1 billion (US$ 1.1 billion) for the financial year ended 31 March 2018, up 67 per cent from last year.

The Group’s revenue reached AED 102.4 billion (US$ 27.9.billion), an increase of 8 per cent over last year’s results, and the Group’s cash balance increased by 33 per cent to AED 25.4 billion (US$ 6.9 billion) supported by the bond issued in March and strong sales due to the early Easter holidays at the end of March.

In line with the overall profit, the Group declared a dividend of AED 2.0 billion (US$ 545 million) to the Investment Corporation of Dubai.

His Highness (H.H.) Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group, said: “Business conditions in 2017-18, while improved, remained tough.

“We saw ongoing political instability, currency volatility and devaluations in Africa, rising oil prices which drove our costs up, and downward pressure on margins from relentless competition. On the positive side, we benefitted from a healthy recovery in the global air cargo industry, as well as the relative strengthening of key currencies against the US dollar,” chairman said.

“We’ve always responded to the challenges of each business cycle with agility, while never losing sight of the future, and this year was no exception. In 2017-18, Emirates and dnata delivered our 30th consecutive year of profit, recorded growth across the business, and continued to invest in initiatives and infrastructure that will secure our future success.”

Ayo Midele/GEE

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Emirates unveils blankets with ecoThread technology

ITRealms:

The Emirates has unveiled new sustainable blankets made from 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles, reports ITRealms.

The soft and warm blankets, ITRealms gathered, were made using ecoTHREAD patented technology and is now available in Economy Class on all long-haul Emirates flights.

Each Emirates ecoTHREAD blanket, ITRealms report, is made from 28 recycled plastic bottles. With the latest innovation, the bottles are recycled into plastic chips before being turned into yarn, creating a polar fleece material.The fine thread is then woven into soft blankets.

The environmentally-friendly blankets were designed in partnership with Buzz, the world’s leading inflight product specialists, and are part of Emirates’ continued commitment to product innovation and sustainability. Emirates already runs a green programme on board recycling aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles, and clean paper products such as newspapers, magazines and cardboard cartons where possible.

By the end of 2019, Emirates ecoTHREAD blankets would have rescued 88 million plastic bottles from landfills– equivalent to the weight of 44 A380 aircraft. This initiative makes it the largest sustainable blanket programme on board in the airline industry. In addition, the manufacturing process of using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) reduces energy emissions by 70%.

ecoTHREAD is certified with the Intertek Green Leaf Mark by third party testing and certification body Intertek, independently verified to use 100% recycled materials.

The Emirates ecoTHREAD blanket for Economy Class completes the recent comforter overhaul across all three classes. The airline introduced a plush, faux sheep-skin blanket in First Class and soft duvets in Business Class.

In the last year, Emirates has added several new products for customers travelling in Economy including the world’s first interactive amenity kits. The amenity kits - filled with necessities such as an eye mask, earplugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, and socks – uses augmented reality technology to unlock entertainment on customers’ mobile devices using the Blippar app. The content was refreshed last month to feature a new interactive game called The Emirates Destination Dash to keep customers’ busy on long-haul flights or on the ground.

Emirates Economy Class cabins are also equipped with the largest in-seat screens in the world in Economy at 13.3 inches and more than 2,500 channels of on-demand entertainment on the award-winning inflight entertainment system, ice Digital Widescreen.

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A take on Emirates ‘Fly with me animal’

Commentary@ITRealms:

Towards the end of last year, Emirates launched a set of Fly with Me Animal toys, which made their debut on board the Emirates flight as soon as it was launched for use. The set of toys included, Lewis the Lion from Africa, Peek U the Panda from China, Enrico the Monkey from Latin America, and Leila the Camel from the Middle East. It is hoped that four new Fly with Me Animals will be introduced every six months. 

These newest range of Fly with Me Animal toys were made for infants and toddlers while the Fly with Me Lonely Planet activity was specially designed for those aged between six(6) and twelve(12) years old. 

The new toys are available on board, ahead of the upcoming holiday season. Emirates’ young flyers have got lots to benefit, as Emirates is out to make their trip a memorable one, given that young travellers are one of the most important customers of the brand. These toys are made available to kids at the kids play area at both First Class and Business Class lounges in Dubai.

Emirates’ Fly with Me Animals is a replacement of the popular Fly with Me Monsters for both entertaining and educational purposes. The animals were designed with unique features - The Travel Buddy which comes with a plastic toggle allowing the toy to be hung in the car, on a pram or in the cot; the Carry Buddy, a dual purpose toy and blanket; as well as the Magnetic Sketcher for young ones to express themselves creatively.

The beauty of these toys is that they come with extra features in it for children’s play time. These toys in the pictures below, have blankets in them for cuddling babies. However, infants and toddlers when playing with these toys as though they were babies will have something to cuddle their babies while keeping them entertained. Also, parents can make use of this blankets to cuddle their new born babies.

The toy is soft in nature like a teddy bear, appearing in various shapes and colours as it will appeal to children, with eyes, ears, hands and legs. It’s lovely to behold. It’s soft nature will endear children to want to play with. It’s not harmful either. The blanket located inside is equally soft enough for baby use, thus playing up an added advantage.

Courtesy: AliExpress.Com

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Breaking News: Emirates is new sponsor of The FA Cup

ITRealms:

The Emirates, a global connector of people and passions, and The FA, has announced it will become the Lead Partner of The FA Cup, to be known as The Emirates FA Cup, from next season until 2018, reports ITRealms.
 

This partnership, ITRealms reports would see next season’s FA Cup kicking off on 15th August with Extra-Preliminary rounds and expected culmination in a showpiece final at Wembley on Saturday 21st May 2016.

This season, ITRealms reports witnessed one of the great FA Cup campaigns, from Middlesbrough beating Manchester City in the Fourth round, to Bradford City shocking Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on the same day. 

ITRealms also gathered that over 2 million fans attended an FA Cup game this season with the competition enjoying a resurgence in recognition amongst domestic and global television audiences.

With over 700 clubs entering the competition since it began in August, The FA Cup continues to touch all parts of the world’s favourite sport, with its distributions being critical to the lifeblood of non-league, amateur and grassroots football in England.

Emirates is a long-standing supporter of football with partnerships across Europe including AC Milan, Real Madrid, Olympiacos FC, Hamburger SV, Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal. Throughout the next three years, Emirates will focus on bringing the world’s most prestigious domestic cup competition closer to its fans from across the nation as well as the rest of the globe.

President, Emirates Airline Sir Tim Clark said football is a truly global sport, a unifying factor in many communities and nations across the world. 

"Never is this more evident than with The FA Cup, which has an unrivalled heritage and draws a global audience of more than 1.1 billion people. The spirit of competition, fair play, and sparking the passions of a global audience, are all values we share at Emirates. That is why we are proud to be the first title sponsor of the tournament and we look forward to a long-term partnership to support and connect fans to their teams both here in the UK and across the world,” he said.

For the Chairman, The FA, Greg Dyke described Emirates’ commitment to sport as evident of  an iconic and forward-thinking lead partner for The FA Cup as great news, the fans and for the whole game. 

“The partnership will help take the tournament to new audiences, inspire interest in football from across the globe and allow us to continue our investment into the game at all levels,” he said.

ITRealms recalls that The FA is the not-for-profit, governing body of football in England which re-invests £100m back into the game each year. It grows participation, promotes diversity and regulates the sport for everyone to enjoy. Over eight million players of all ages, 400,000 volunteers, 300,000 coaches and 27,000 qualified referees help The FA keep the grassroots game going.

 

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Emirates commences daily flights from Abuja

ITRealms:

Global connector of people and places, the Emirates, has now linked up to the nation’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, reports ITRealms.

Abuja is Emirates 26th destination in Africa and its 144th worldwide.

ITRealms recalls that Emirates flight EK785 landed at Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on 1st August, marking the start of the airline’s daily service to its second destination in Nigeria, even as its services to Lagos were launched just over 10 years ago.

Confirming this to ITRealms, Emirates’ Vice President for Commercial Operations, Northern and Western Africa, Adil Al Ghaith, said this new daily flight provides a convenient point to point service for customers between Abuja and Dubai, and it will meet and further stimulate a vibrant market demand between the two cities.

“It will also serve our customers in Nigeria and around the network with additional connectivity and daily frequency. Our leisure and business passengers from Nigeria can now better connect to the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Asia via our hub in Dubai,” Ghaith said.

The VP also said that customers in Abuja could experience the A380 flagship aircraft to 29 destinations around the world, including popular ones like Beijing, Hong Kong, Mumbai, New York, Jeddah and London.

He equally said that with a fast growing economy, Nigeria is a key market for Emirates, pointing out that they started operations to Nigeria on 2nd January 2004, with four flights a week from Dubai to Lagos.

“Since then, our operations have steadily grown with increases in both frequency and capacity between Lagos and Dubai. Today, we fly twice daily to Lagos and now we have added Abuja, giving us a total of more than 12,200 seats a week, which will further stimulate business and leisure travel, as well as trade,” he said.

Emirates’ Dubai-Abuja route is served by an Airbus A340-300 which offers 267 seats in a three-class configuration - 12 First Class, 42 Business Class and 213 Economy Class seats. Customers on the route experience Emirates’ award-winning hospitality - from multi-national cabin crew and gourmet cuisine to the iceentertainment system, which offers hundreds of channels of audio and visual entertainment. Customers also enjoy Emirates’ generous baggage allowance of 30kg in Economy Class, 40kg in Business and 50kg in First.

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Emirates scores another first with inflight communications

Customers connect onboard the A380.

The Emirates has set yet another industry standard by launching an inflight communications in its A380 aircraft.

Emirates seems reputed for setting industry standards and with the latest inflight innovations and connectivity; including being the first airline to equip entire Airbus fleet with in-flight phones in 1993.

A year later, Emirates’s became the  first airline to equip entire Airbus fleet with in-flight fax machines; 2003: First airline to offer live BBC text news headlines on its aircraft; 2006: Personal in-seat email and Short Messaging Service (SMS) installed throughout the fleet, in all classes. 

Also in 2008, Emirate was reportedly the first airline to offer onboard mobile telephone services in collaboration, while in 2011 Emirates unveiled Wi-Fi internet access on A380 in conjunction with OnAir.

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