Dubai: Emirates airline started and ended 2013 on a high note with world firsts, historical partnerships and record fleet orders, while its fleet flew around the world more than 18,000 times.
Travelling more than 751 million kilometres and with the earth’s equator circumference 40,075 kilometres, Emirates said yesterday its fleet circumnavigated the earth 18,753 times.
It also launched nine new destinations including Warsaw, Tokyo Haneda, Sialkot and Kabul in the year and flew more than 43 millions passengers across its network.
The year started with a headline when the world’s first A380 dedicated concourse opened at Dubai International. The 800-metre long building has 20 A380 gates.
A month later the airline signed a five-year deal to become a Global Partner of Formula One. However, one of the top news events of the airline came in the first half of the year when finalised its landmark partnership with Australian flagship carrier, Qantas. The partnership has increased the total number of weekly flights from Dubai to Australia to 98. Qantas shifted its London-bound Asia hub to Dubai in the tie-up.
The airline received 24 new aircraft in 2013 as well ordered 200 new planes including 150 Boeing 777Xs and 50 A380s valued at $99 billion (Dh363.57 billion) at the Dubai Airshow in November.
