DUBAI – The Hamburg Airport’s chief executive officer Michael Eggenschwiler has said that Dubai and Hamburg airports have excellent tourism potential and Emirates airline played active role to help double Gulf tourists to Germany in the last five years.
Eggenschwiler at the third Dubai-Hamburg Business Forum talked to Khaleej Times about the importance of Dubai Airport and Emirates airline to their business. “For the next two to three years the focus is on stabilising the current capacity increase on Emirates’ Dubai-Hamburg route,” he said.
“Whether for Dubai-bound, or for transfer passengers, Dubai Airport is a world class facility, providing good connections into the Asia-Pacific region as well as Africa and the Middle East. Emirates airline is quality and its pricing scheme is very competitive, so business and leisure passengers from Hamburg benefit from this situation,” he said responding to a question on benefits to German passengers.
Citing Emirates airline’s orders for 90 Airbus A380, he said it secures overall 13,000 jobs in Germany. Most of these jobs are located in Hamburg and Northern Germany, he added.
Hamburg Airport is very much interested in keeping a close relationship with Emirates airline. The airline has transported nearly 1,250,000 passengers since taking up the Hamburg service in March 2006. The average growth per year on the Hamburg-Dubai route is a strong 15.6 per cent.
Regarding new markets for the Hamburg Airport, he hoped to see more frequencies and eventually four weekly non-stop flights between Shanghai and Hamburg. Furthermore, Hamburg is aiming to acquire non-stop services to Asian destinations such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore, he said, adding that in the United States further capacity to New York and new non-stop services to Chicago, Washington and Miami especially because of the Shopping Centers in Miami are also on the list.
“It is our objective to raise the general awareness of Hamburg’s touristic potential as well as being a flourishing business destination in the northern part of Germany,” he commented on the forum.
In the period, January to September 2005 Hamburg welcomed 4,768 travellers arriving from the Gulf region. In March the following year Emirates started to fly Dubai-Hamburg non-stop. In 2010, between January and September, Hamburg counted 10,778 arrivals. “This means the number of travellers from the Gulf region arriving in Hamburg has more than doubled within five years,” he said. He mentioned that Emirates airline started a second daily frequency flight to Hamburg on September 1, 2011 and to promote this new service Hamburg Airport supports Emirates with marketing measures such as events for travel agencies, PR activities and advertising in the Hamburg market.
“For Hamburg Airport we forecast in total of 13.5 million passengers by the end of 2011,” he said, adding that the Emirates route between Hamburg and Dubai should see 255,000 passengers by the end of this year and next year around 350,000. Emirates is the sixth largest airline in Hamburg. “To secure this growth Hamburg Airport has excellent contacts with Emirates and supports their marketing activities,” he added.
© Khaleej Times 2011
