Regional markets vying for Emirates service
Regional airports are increasingly hoping to attract Emirates with the market between Southeast Europe and Dubai completely recovered following the coronavirus pandemic. Belgrade and Sarajevo are eying operations from the world’s busiest international carrier, while Zagreb is aiming to see the airline restore flights to Croatia. However, the competition is growing with Greece inviting Emirates to consider the possibility of launching flights to Thessaloniki, which would continue on to New York. Greece’s Tourism Minister, Vassillis Kikilas, said, “Residents of Balkan countries prefer to travel abroad through Thessaloniki. The airport currently connects to several cities across the Balkans including Belgrade, Zagreb and Tirana. The potential is great and would contribute to establishing Thessaloniki into a hub for the Balkans”.
The Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brabić, recently held talks with the Founder and CEO of Emirates, Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, in Dubai. The meeting is said to have been successful with the Emirati carrier previously having studied options of introducing flights to the Serbian capital. On the other hand, Sarajevo Airport believes that existing operations from Dubai, maintained by hybrid carrier Flydubai, could be further expanded by Emirates’ arrival. “We sincerely hope that a respectable airline such as Emirates will consider and accept our offer in order for us to commence negotiations. There is strong demand and potential between the UAE and our country. Flydubai has been our partner for many years, and we have excellent cooperation with them. In the coming period, we will work to further enhance our partnership”, the General Manager of Sarajevo Airport, Alan Bajić, said last year. Emirates has also conducted a feasibility study on operations to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, showing solid, albeit highly seasonal, demand in both the premium and economy cabins.
Emirates discontinued flights to Zagreb in 2020 at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the airline said that while it is recovering quickly from the pandemic and capacity should return to pre-Covid levels next year, no final decision has been made concerning its Zagreb flights. “We hope to restart our operations in Zagreb when it is commercially and operationally feasible to do so in the future, and we will make a formal announcement if there are any developments in this regard”, the airline said. Flydubai, which has served as Emirates’ replacement on the route since this summer, has scheduled flights to the Croatian capital into the 2023 summer season, which begins next March.
Although Emirates is considering Belgrade, Sarajevo and Zagreb, the existing make-up of its fleet and the delay in the delivery of new aircraft are causing issues in launching new markets with softer premium demand or greater seasonality. Deliveries of Boeing 787 Dreamliners have been pushed back by at least a year until 2024 and it could be even longer due to the US plane maker's continued delivery suspension over structural flaws. The Dubai-based carrier ordered thirty of the twin-aisle jets nearly three years ago as part of a broader deal that saw it cut the number of orders for larger 777X aircraft, now also delayed. "Now we know for sure that Dreamliner deliveries are not going to happen in 2023. It may not even happen in 2024", Emirates' Chief Operating Officer, Adel Al Redha, said, adding, “Emirates is in talks with Boeing over the delays to the 787 Dreamliner and 777X deliveries”. The carrier has a fleet of Airbus A380 and B777 aircraft.
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