Emirates reported (30-Dec-2018) the following highlights of 2018:
- Handled more than 59 million passengers on more than 192,000 flights. The airline's 274 aircraft travelled more than 908 million km;
- Operated an average of more than 3700 passenger services per week to 157 destinations;
- Commenced Dubai-Bali-Auckland, Edinburgh, London Stansted and Santiago de Chile services. Increased frequency to 20 destinations and upgraded capacity to eight cities;
- Expanded partnership with flydubai to a combined network of 206 unique points. More than one million passengers booked travel on combined Emirates and flydubai itineraries;
- Announced a new codeshare agreement with Jetstar Pacific and enhanced commercial strategic partnership with South African Airways;
- Emirates Skywards reached 20 million members. More than 14 billion miles were redeemed, 85% of which were redeemed in the form of an upgrade, a full reward ticket or a combined cash and miles transaction. This represented more than 1.1 million transactions, the equivalent of nearly six flight reward transactions for every take off;
- Received 146th and final Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in Dec-2018;
- Announced a USD16 billion deal for 36 additional A380 aircraft in Jan-2018, for delivery from 2020. Increased destinations served with A380 aircraft to 50 with the addition of Hamburg and Osaka;
- Commenced a USD150 million programme to refurbish 10 777-200LR aircraft;
- Served more than 66 million meals on services departing Dubai and handled nearly 36 million pieces of baggage in Dubai;
- 12 million passengers connected to inflight WiFi;
- Introduced home check-in in Dubai in Apr-2018. So far more than 6000 bags have been checked in using the service;
- Opened new lounge facilities in Cairo and completed refurbishment of its lounge in Rome;
- Introduced new luxury products and amenity kits in first and business class.
President Tim Clark said: "We had our challenges in 2018, however we continued to maximise opportunities by deploying our capacity to best serve customer demand, keeping a close watch on our costs, utilising technology to improve business performance, as well as developing more customer-centric products and services to provide our passengers with greater choice". [more - original PR]