Pinoy revenge travel plans boost Emirates bookings

MANILA, Philippines – Emirates Airlines is optimistic about the Philippine travel industry as it adds to the post-pandemic travel growth, fueled by Filipinos’ revenge travel plans.

In an interview with The STAR, Emirates Country Director for the Philippines Saeed Miran said the future of air travel in the Philippines is bright and the airline itself is experiencing extraordinary demand.

The tourism sector is expected to contribute up to eight percent to the country’s gross domestic product this year, up from more than six percent last year, as foreign and local tourism continues to grow due to the easing of related restrictions. with COVID.

“The Philippines has a huge demand. Filipinos are eager to go on revenge trips after the pandemic,” Miran said.

Emirates has more than 30 years of long-standing relationship with the Philippines. It has operated services from Dubai to Manila since 1990 and to Cebu and Clark since 2016.

Now that flights have returned to normal post-pandemic, Emirates is once again experiencing high demand on services from Dubai to Manila, prompting it to resume its 18 weekly passenger frequencies to Manila within weeks of for COVID restrictions to be lifted.

As such, Emirates seat occupancy on the Dubai to Manila route is now even higher than before the pandemic, averaging 94 per cent for 2023 so far.

Building on this strong growth, Emirates has also introduced the Emirates Boeing 777 First Class cabin, which is the first and only airline cabin class of its kind to be offered on flights to and from Manila, for those who want experience the ultimate luxury on board.

“There has been demand in the Philippines,” Miran said in the newly opened First Class cabin.

Overall, Miran said Middle Eastern airlines are constantly improving their services, from new routes, new cabins to additional in-flight entertainment offerings.

At the end of July, it had up to 6,500 channels of on-demand movies, TV shows, music and games, Emirates said.

These include original documentaries from Bloomberg Originals, content from Discovery Channel and Discovery+, and movies from HBO Max, etc.

“We constantly update our growing list of multimedia titles on our award-winning ice in-flight entertainment system, so travelers always have new titles to immerse themselves in every time they fly,” the company also said.

More importantly, Miran said the airline has consistently offered access to more than 500 cities around the world, along with its airline partners.

Today, Emirates has more than 29 codeshare, 117 interline and 11 intermodal rail partners in more than 100 countries.

This provides Filipino travelers with greater connectivity and access to more than 500 cities around the world, beyond the airline’s own network, the company said.

Emirates also offers more flight options from the Philippines.

“With our interline partnership with Philippine Airlines, Emirates passengers have access to a number of domestic points on the Philippine Airlines network across Manila, Cebu and Clark, providing seamless connectivity while using a single ticket and a convenient booking policy. luggage,” the airline said.