![\"Edwin](\"http:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/061030-emirates-lau.gif\" "\\"Edwin")
Emirates Airline's commercial success is partly the result of the company taking maximum advantage of Dubai's central geographic location as well as the lack of night flying restrictions at Dubai International Airport, enabling it to achieve a high utilization of its aircraft fleet and to offer a growing number of convenient East-West as well as North-South connections. Now, Emirates is expanding its China operations and is looking to the Middle Kingdom to help propel its global growth.<\/p>\n
Originally from Hong Kong, Edwin Lau is the Regional Manager Greater China and North East Asia for Emirates. Lau joined Emirates Airline in 1992 as Area Manager Hong Kong and became the airline's Area Manager Hong Kong and North East Asia in 1996, then re-titled to Regional Manager Greater China and North East Asia in 2004. He has over thirty years of experience in the aviation industry, and prior to working with Emirates he held various positions at Jardines Airways, Hong Kong Air International, Cathay Pacific Airways and Royal Brunei Airlines.<\/p>\n
What is the biggest challenge that Emirates faces in China?<\/strong> How much of an impact has rising fuel prices had on your China routes?<\/strong> How is Emirates working with its Chinese airline partners?<\/strong> Emirates is not a member of any alliance, and that's by choice. We feel that our customers' interests and our own are best served by remaining independent and not being part of a group of companies which some regard as cartels. We do have code share agreements with nine airlines: Continental Airlines, Air India, Philippine Airlines, South African Airways, Thai Airways, Japan Airlines, Air Mauritius, Royal Air Maroc and Sri Lankan. We are pleased with the results which cover all continents to supplement our network<\/p>\n How will Emirates' cargo business change in Asia through the next few years?<\/strong> How do you expect inbound and outbound traveler trends to change over the next five years for Emirates in China?<\/strong> We expect the number of outbound tourists to increase dramatically and we expect that many will use Dubai as a transit point to reach other destinations.<\/p>\n How is your company differentiating itself from competitors who also fly around Asia?<\/strong> All our brands and divisions such as Emirates SkyCargo, Skywards, Emirates Holidays, Emirates Hotels and Resorts and Dnata provide great synergy and offer complete solutions to our customers' travel, trade and business needs. We do not spend a lot of energy monitoring the competition. We believe that we are best served by developing our own strengths.<\/p>\n What advice would you share with other air companies hoping to expand their businesses to China?<\/strong> Emirates Airline's commercial success is partly the result of the company taking maximum advantage of Dubai's central geographic location as well as the lack of night flying restrictions at Dubai International Airport, enabling it to achieve a high utilization of its aircraft fleet and to offer a growing number of convenient East-West as well as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12723],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIn China we currently operate daily flights to Beijing and Shanghai and a freighter service between Dubai and Shanghai six times a week. We would like to increase our presence in the Asia Pacific, however, Emirates is capacity-constrained and this is the main challenge facing us at the moment. The volatility in the fuel market is another challenge facing us at the moment.<\/p>\n
\nFuel costs remained the top expenditure accounting for 27.2% of total operating costs in 2005-06 fiscal year, up from 21.4% the previous year. We buy aviation fuel in the international markets and have to pay the same rates as other airlines, but we will only increase the surcharge if we absolutely must, which covered less than half of the incremental costs because we know it's a turnoff for customers.<\/p>\n
\nIn China, Emirates has excellent working relationships with airport and ground handlers, as well as travel and cargo agents and the industry in general. We value these relationships highly and understand their importance for Emirates' continuing success in this market.<\/p>\n
\nWe expect our cargo business to become an increasingly important part of our business in the Asia Pacific. The region currently contributes around 32 per cent of the total tonnage and 42 per cent of the revenue. By 2010, Emirates will be carrying 1.5 million tonnes of cargo around the world annually.<\/p>\n
\nCurrently over 60% of our passengers are corporate\/business passengers. The rest are students\/tourists. The foreigners coming into China and the Chinese going out are almost 50:50. Overall we expect to see a large increase in the number of passengers traveling both to and from China.<\/p>\n
\nOur approach has been to find out what customers want, and to focus on delivering it. We continually challenge ourselves to set new service standards and offerings. Emirates differentiates itself on the basis of its superior services, innovation across all areas of its operations, as well as value-added packages and high profile sponsorships that not only benefit passengers directly but also create memorable traveling experiences.<\/p>\n
\nI think the best piece of advice would be to ensure that the proper research is done before entering the market. We always take our time to properly identify routes and flights which offer a strong business case, are commercially attractive, and allow us to seize new opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"