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Dubai-based airline Emirates on Sunday said that it was considering a long-haul, discount offshoot using super-jumbo A380 aircraft and revealed it had asked Canberra to double its flights to Australia.
Emirates president Tim Clark said the Airbus A380, the world's largest airliner, could open up a market for a low-cost carrier on long-distance flights.
"Introduce the low-cost, long-haul carrier, operating something like a 380 with 800 seats in it and you can start flying very long distances for very low unit costs and you pass those low unit costs through to the fares," Clark told Channel Nine in an interview screened this week.
Clark said Emirates had carried out modelling on the practicality of a discount A380 airline and even had a possible name for the offshoot, 'Emirates Express'.
He said while the project appeared attractive, Emirates had decided against launching such a venture in the short-term because it was too busy elsewhere and wanted to remain a full-service airline.
"I wouldn't rule it out, I'm actually quite attracted to it myself, I think we would do a very good job," Clark said.
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http://travel.iafrica.com/flights/528085.htm
Dubai-based airline Emirates on Sunday said that it was considering a long-haul, discount offshoot using super-jumbo A380 aircraft and revealed it had asked Canberra to double its flights to Australia.
Emirates president Tim Clark said the Airbus A380, the world's largest airliner, could open up a market for a low-cost carrier on long-distance flights.
"Introduce the low-cost, long-haul carrier, operating something like a 380 with 800 seats in it and you can start flying very long distances for very low unit costs and you pass those low unit costs through to the fares," Clark told Channel Nine in an interview screened this week.
Clark said Emirates had carried out modelling on the practicality of a discount A380 airline and even had a possible name for the offshoot, 'Emirates Express'.
He said while the project appeared attractive, Emirates had decided against launching such a venture in the short-term because it was too busy elsewhere and wanted to remain a full-service airline.
"I wouldn't rule it out, I'm actually quite attracted to it myself, I think we would do a very good job," Clark said.
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http://travel.iafrica.com/flights/528085.htm
