Dubai route to boost jobs and tourism, says Emirates

EMIRATES Airlines has entered the Irish market promising to be a major employer and boost to the local tourism industry in the coming years.

The Dubai-based carrier has been steadily expanding its presence in Europe, and Dublin marks its 29th European route to the United Arab Emirates. The airline will run a daily service between Dublin and Dubai from January 9, for which management says early demand has been “unusually high”.

While Emirates already employs 250 Irish staff in Dubai, it is establishing a city-centre office in Dublin and will initially employ 25 people here.

Those positions will be spread across that management and sales office and the airport through sales and cargo services. The airline is planning to add to those staff numbers over the next 12 months.

Speaking yesterday, that the formal launch of the new route, Emirates’ vice president for passenger sales worldwide, Thierry Antinori said that entering Ireland was a logical step.

“If you already have 28 routes in Europe, you really should be going to Dublin. Dublin has always been on our radar and there are already strong levels of trade and tourism activity between Ireland and the UAE,” he said.

Regarding the early bookings, ahead of the January start, Mr Antinori — who recently left the Lufthansa group, even after being offered the top job at Austrian Airlines — said he isn’t totally surprised, but is pleased.

“This is an excellent response from the Irish market and we haven’t witnessed this level of bookings, nor such strong interest in a new route, for many years. This gives us huge confidence in Ireland and the figures support the commercial research that precedes any decision we take to launch a new service.”

Mr Antinori said that much of Emirates’ business out of Dublin will be through connecting fliers to further locations such as Australia and the Far East, but said that the tourism and business boost will also be felt here through companies and holidaymakers coming from the Gulf States.

“Emiratis like to travel to Europe — particularly during the hot UAE summer and, we think that they will have a role to play in encouraging inward tourism to Ireland.

“We’re taking this opportunity to come into the market at an interesting time, offering real value, an award-winning service and access to new markets through our state-of-the-art hub in Dubai,” he added.