Operating a fleet of 270 wide-body aircraft, the company stopped operations in late March due to the new coronavirus pandemic, before resuming it two weeks later. Emirates plans to serve 58 cities by mid-August, up from about 157 before the health crisis.
“It’s good to talk about physical distance on planes (…) but we want to get back to normal,” said Boutros Boutros, communications manager for Emirates, at a conference on artificial intelligence. to Dubai.
“An airplane is made to be filled. Having empty seats is not an option unless they are paid for by passengers,” he added.
Emirates announced at the end of last week up to 9,000 job cuts out of a workforce of 60,000 employees. Its president, Tim Clark, estimated that it would take four years to return to normal.
Dubai Airport CEO Paul Griffith said the impact of Covid-19 on Dubai International Airport had been “rapid” and “considerable”.
“We have gone from 1,100 flights a day, or 280,000 passengers, to 17 flights in three days,” he said at the same conference.
He added that 44,000 passengers passed through the airport during the month of May, roughly the same number for four hours in normal times.
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