ROME (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The pandemic “was a situation that created various problems for all airlines, because it was the first time in which the engines were completely shut down – something that has never happened before in the world of air transport – but now almost all carriers have restarted in the best possible way and work is underway to reach pre-covid levels. We are investing in aircraft fleet, in new routes and to provide a series of additional services to all our customers while rethinking the logic of air transport of the future”. This was said by Flavio Ghiringhelli, Country Manager of Emirates Airlines in Italy, interviewed by Claudio Brachino for “Italpress Economy”.
“In 2023, after the pandemic, we had to introduce new staff: already in August we had reached over 20,000 people in the company’s workforce” and “this year we started with a recruitment campaign for 5,000 people who will work as cabin crew”, he added. “We started a campaign to address two particular needs: the first is to strengthen the number of people who collaborate in this department, which is very important in terms of the hospitality we give to our customers. Then we made a multi-million dollar investment, we have a list of over 300 airplanes that will soon arrive and will also be included in the Italian market.”
After Covid, “many people who normally traveled in economy class asked us to have a little more space”, suggesting “that we introduce a new class”, Premium Economy. “We are working on the materials, the design of the seats and the interiors of the aircraft: we are the first airline in the world to offer four different class options for traveling” and, “where we have already making it available, especially on long-haul destinations, we have a very high return of satisfaction from our customers”. On the routes, “we are completely recovering the entire network that we had during the pre-covid, apart from some destinations in China which are not yet available, and on some destinations – in particular Australia – we have increased the number of frequencies, because we realized that not only Australians want to travel, but that the whole world wants to go to Australia.”
Emirates “considers Italy a strategic country, it is the eighth most important market in the world and the third in Europe, so we certainly give particular attention. Today we operate 41 weekly frequencies from Milan, two flights a day to Rome, one daily flight to Venice and six times a week to Bologna”. As regards sustainability, “air transport as an industry is also focusing a lot on sustainability, but if we look at the impact of air transport on the total contribution to the production of Co2 in the air, the percentage of air transport is very low, only 2.9%, compared to other industries. Despite this, we are committed to working hard on sustainable fuels, which allow us to operate safely with extremely limited pollution. We have the possibility of working on aircraft routes and using new generation mobile robots, which actually allow us to consume even less.” For the world of air transport, “technology is an extremely important element because it allows us to make an evolution compared to traditional activities”, for example with “the use of facial recognition systems to speed up activities at the airport” or with the technologies that today allow us to go to the gate even without printing the boarding pass. “We are developing an activity linked to the maintenance of our aircraft, we are training our engineers without the need to be trained in hangars”.
– foto Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
