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| Nabil
Sultan |
In
a bid to augment passenger facilitation, Emirates has recently
tied up with SOTC-Kuoni for the upcoming Dubai Shopping Festival.
Says Nabil Sultan, general manager - India and Nepal, “To
promote the Dubai Shopping festival, to be held in January,
we have tied up with SOTC-Kuoni for promoting special packages.
The package will come with return ticket, accommodation, airport
transfer, breakfast and a sightseeing tour or entry to a special
event like concert, fashion show or games.” Subsequently,
the carrier is also launching a new campaign worldwide called
‘Keep Discovering’.
“Our
passengers, be it regular fliers or first timers, will discover
something new in terms of services, flight entertainment,
cuisine etc. The idea is to offer them new experiences every
time they fly with us,” added Sultan.
Further elucidating their Indian presence, Sultan added, “Demand,
unfortunately, is far greater than our capacity. We commenced
operations to Kochi in December and today, we cannot even
offer a seat out of Kochi till the first week of January,”
said Sultan gesturing helplessness. He was recently in Delhi
to attend the Annual Aviation and Tourism Summit, 2002.
Emirates with 41 flights a week out of India - 18 out of Mumbai,
seven out of Delhi, eight out of Hyderabad, four out of Chennai
and three out of Kochi - no wonder, is looking for more capacity
as it is already utilising the total capacity allowed under
the bilateral agreement.
“We
are comfortable with both increasing frequency to existing
points and starting operations at new points - whatever the
government of India will allow,” quipped Sultan. Given
an option, Emirates would like to start operation to Bangalore
immediately, the only important city in the south they are
not connected to.
That India is an important market for the airline is evident
from the facilities it offers to Indian passengers. “Recently,
we have launched a new product - an online booking engine.
Passengers can book tickets online, pay through credit cards
and get their tickets delivered at their doorstep. To facilitate
things for Indian passengers, we opened visa offices, although,
we were flying full,” he pointed out.
Emirates is certainly not threatened by Qatar Airways, which
is looking at India in a big way. “Emirates has grown
in a competitive environment. On one hand, Dubai has an open
sky policy, on the other hand, we get no protection from the
government. Still we succeeded. So, we are not intimidated
by competition,” he summed up.
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