Europeans vote for Emirates

It is barely six weeks into the new year, and Emirates is busy scooping major awards across continents, recently adding European metal to its mantel. British travel agents have voted Emirates into the top spot for its services to the Middle East and Far East.

The airline was the clear winner of the Best Scheduled Airline to the Middle East/Far East category at the prestigious Travel Weekly Globe Awards 2007, widely considered to be one of the UK’s most important travel awards ceremonies.

Emirates received almost 60 per cent of all votes cast, in the process staving off competition from other leading world-class carriers. The event was attended by key figures in the UK travel and transport industry.

Executives and business professionals in Germany continue to give Emirates their resounding thump of approval. Readers of Business Traveller magazine honoured Emirates as the Best Airline to the Middle East and Africa, for the fifth time in a row. The airline scored top marks in inflight catering, cabin crew, ground and handling services, and security – in short, every important facet held dear by discerning passengers.

Travel Weekly also recognised Emirates’ services to other parts of its network, short-listing the airline in the Best Scheduled Airline to Pacific/New Zealand/Australia category.

Similarly, Business Traveller voted Emirates second in the category Best Airline to the Far East and the Pacific Region.

With more than 300 trophies under its belt at such a young age, how important is it for Emirates to win more accolades? Answering the question, Mike Simon, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice President said: “Of course awards matter, every one of them does, and each occupies its own pride of place in our trophy cabinet. We are truly honoured to have been recognised by the readers of Travel Weekly in the UK and the Business Traveller in Germany. These votes of confidence across both our customer streams – passengers and travel trade – are welcome endorsements of our continual quest to offer the broadest choice of flights, and the highest levels of service.”

2007 has already seen Emirates reap four awards in the U.S. – Best Airline for First Class at Global Traveller's GT Tested Awards for 2006; Best First Class in the World and Best Business Class to the Middle East from Business Traveller’s readers; and Best Airline for Flights to the Middle East in Executive Travel magazine’s 2006 Leading Edge Awards readers’ survey.

The awards are a testament to Emirates’ successful year 2006, during which it launched nine new passenger routes – Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Beijing, Hamburg, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Nagoya, Bangalore, and Tunis. The airline also increased its flights to key existing destinations in the Asia–Pacific region such as Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Perth. In Africa, Emirates increased its frequency to Cairo in October, and to Sudan in January 2007; and launched non-stop flights to Dar es Salaam, de-linking the service from Nairobi.

Emirates currently offers 91 non-stop flights every week from Dubai to the UK, with services to London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. The airline will increase the choice of UK destinations from 1st September, with the start of a daily service to Newcastle.

Emirates offers four destinations in Germany, offering double dailies to Frankfurt, Munich and Düsseldorf and a daily to Hamburg, which extends to New York.