Emirates First To Blink On Kangaroo Route

[Andrew McLaughlin]

This from EK this morning...

Dear all,

A quick email if I may on some recent media reporting in Australia on Emirates' load factors. In some reporting of our recent fare increase and broader commentary on the ‘Kangaroo Route’ our load factor figures were incorrectly extrapolated from the Australian Government’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport & Regional Economics (BITRE).

BITRE’s monthly reporting of ‘International Scheduled Air Transport’ states that its statistics in relation to Emirates are skewed downwards due to BITRE not capturing all our passengers from the data.

Our actual load factors for the Australian market were 78% in the 2008/09 Emirates financial year, not the 62% reported by some media outlets.

Thanks for the opportunity to clarify this matter.

Regards,

Andrew J Parker
Senior Vice President
Public Affairs, International Affairs, Industry Affairs, Environment Affairs
Emirates Airline
Emirates Group Headquarters

[Rhys Xanthis]

Originally Posted by NickN

Personally I believe there is still a certain stigma attached to flying via the "Middle East"....

Not me personally, but I can see how someone misinformed could be slightly concerned about going via the middle east, or flying a middle eastern airline other than the well known Emirates and Etihad.

Having just done SIN-ATH return on Qatar via DOH, apart from the usual lack of space, it was great. The entertainment system was awesome, way more movies to choose from than QF, and they also had live news. Doha airport is nothing special but it's by no means crap. They are building a new one, so I'm sure once that is opened and people start going via Doha too, as a 3rd middle eastern transit destination after Abu Dhabi and Dubai, people won't be so apprehensive about travelling with such carriers.