[Music] emirates today is one of the largest and most well-connected airlines around standing out with its impressive all-wide body fleet of a380s and triple sevens to reach this size it's grown incredibly rapidly having only been founded in 1985. let's take a look back at the founding development and rise of emirates over the past 35 years [Music] firstly if you're new to this channel be sure to subscribe for weekly aviation videos [Music] emirates was first launched back in 1985 with carriers like british airways klm and qantas recently celebrating 100 year anniversaries this makes emirates quite a young carrier it was however the first of the major middle eastern hub airlines to be established as qatar airways didn't start until 1993 and etihad in 2003 in the 1980s gulf air was the main connector in the middle east it was the flag carrier for four states oman abu dhabi qatar and bahrain but it was flying into dubai and it was largely feeding passengers to other airlines and realizing this gold fair decided to pull services back from dubai leaving the uae with fewer connections and it was this that spurred the dubai royal family to propose a new airline which of course we know today as emirates emirates came into existence with funding from the dubai royal family and pakistan international airways or pia the latter also provided emirates first aircraft as well as technical expertise and administrative assistance the new carrier took a mere 10 million dollars in startup capital from the dubai government and repaid this within a year the two aircraft leased from pia were a boeing 737 200 and one airbus a300 200 these were painted in emirates livery but were operated initially by pia pilots and crew they were eventually replaced once emirates was able to recruit and train its own team emirates also operated two boeing 727-200 aircraft on loan from the royal families to buy air wing these were upgraded advanced models with increased range and more powerful engines the 727s would stay with the airline until the mid 1990s while the seoul 737 was returned to pia in 1987. emirates first flight took place on october 25th 1985.
this was flight ek 600 from dubai to karachi and was a fitting first destination given the strong involvement of pia beyond karachi other first routes were regional including mumbai delhi colombo amman dhaka and cairo as head of airline planning in the early years much of the regional and later international route development was at the hands of a young tim clark even as emirates has grown today to cover the globe this strong regional base in the middle east and indian subcontinent remains key for the carrier right from the start emirates experienced success helped by strong advertising in the region the airline carried 000 passengers in its first year what's more impressive is that it turned a profit in the same year its main rival golf air saw profits fall by over 30 percent in july 1987 emirates officially purchased its first two aircraft two airbus a310s the airline would eventually take on a total of 13 a310s and 7 a300s and use them to expand services flights to europe began that same year with london and frankfurt as initial destinations istanbul and male were also added later in the year route expansion continued in the 90s flights to east and southeast asia began in 1990 with manila and singapore as the first destinations in the following years hong kong paris rome and zurich would also be added with expansion came new aircraft emirates ordered seven boeing triple seven two hundreds in 1992. the triple seven added vast amounts of capacity to the airlines operations it was a modern comfortable fuel-efficient jets and it could fly for miles so you know really it allowed emirates to launch huge routes into places like australia and the united states um and it is today the biggest operator of the triple seven and looking forward to its triple seven x of course emirates also partnered with u. s airways from 1993 allowing the offer of more destinations and round-the-world flights emirates marketed itself as a premium airline and still does to this day it focused on luxury offerings in premium classes and was one of the first airlines to install entertainment systems at every seat the same marketing focus continued in later years with be good to yourself fly emirates as the new slogan in the late 90s the late 90s would also see the launch of emirates sky cargo in 1998 this initially operated aircraft under lease from atlas air but allowed emirates to build up dedicated freight schedules and routes the first of the airline's triple 7 orders in 1992 arrived four years later in 1996.
emirates quickly launched a triple seven service to australia with a stop in singapore this would go on to become one of the airline's most successful routes emirates also added more airbus aircraft taking 29 a330 200s starting in 1999 these would remain in the fleet until 2016. in may 1998 emirates bought a 40 stake for 17 million dollars in air lanka as part of the investment emirates managed the airline for the next 10 years taking control of ground handling and catering operations at colombo and redefining the airline's image and strategy the name was changed to sri lankan airlines soon after emirates involvement began and its fleet and route network expanded when the management contract ended in 2008 emirates pulled out selling its expanded stake of 43. 6 back to the sri lankan government by the turn of the century emirates had a fleet of 30 aircraft and operated to 28 destinations by the end of the 2000s it would add another 46 destinations to this to meet expansion plans emirates placed further aircraft orders with both boeing and airbus the huge orders placed in 2003 and 2005 showed just how quickly it recovered from the aviation industry's decline in 2001.
with boeing it significantly expanded its fleet of triple sevens from 2004 to 2011 it placed six separate orders for triple sevens collectively the airline would sign for over a hundred and twenty triple sevens the majority of them being the dash 300 er variant with airbus emirates ordered both the a340 and the a380 from 2000 through to 2013 emirates would place six separate orders for over 120 super jumbos for the a340 emirates would buy 20 ordering 2-500 variants and 18 longer-600s it would later cancel some of these you're liking this video so far why not click subscribe and hit the like button oh and be sure to click that notification bell too the first of the a380s was delivered in 2008 and as the fleet grew so did the airline's list of destinations and frequencies the 2000s and early 2010s saw much more expansion particularly with routes to asia australasia and the united states emirates now began challenging other airlines on lucrative asia to north america routes offering one-stop services via dubai emirates dubai hub puts it in a unique position you know some people do want to go to dubai sure but that market's always going to be quite limited but being midway between the east and the west really allowed emirates to shuttle people right across the globe connecting in dubai and the a380 allowed it to pack planes full of passengers going from major airports to its to buy hub in order to connect onto their final destination so you know really the a380 gave it hub and spoke on steroids and it worked very well for the airline in a period of increasing airline alliance participation emirates decided to stay independent and not join an alliance it would instead focus on its own connections and building its global network the airline launched its own frequent flyer program skywards in 2000 building a network of partner airlines emirates frequent travelers can collect and use reward miles and share limited tier benefits with other carriers emirates has continued its growth in the last decade taking delivery of more a380 aircraft as of 2020 it operates a fleet of 115 a380s and 151 triple sevens it has also continued its focus on high quality service and corporate appeal with its impressive premium cabins in 2016 it won the skytrax airline of the year award for the first time the airline has introduced some of the best first class products in the air as well in 2017 it was the first airline to install a fully enclosed suite in first class this features just six private suites so far only on some triple seven aircraft other sevens and the a380 offer semi-enclosed private suites while the a380 features a large bar lounge and even showers looking forward emirates is about to launch a new premium economy product a late comer to the idea it'll be the first major middle eastern airline to include this level of service also in the coming years the airline will operate a more diverse fleet as it will eventually take delivery of some new generation long-range twin jets the first major new order was for the boeing triple 7x in 2013. its order for 150 aircraft was the largest ever order for new aircraft valued at 76 billion dollars or 83 billion dollars in 2020 it initially ordered 35 boeing triple 7 8 and 115 boeing triple seven nine aircraft but changed this in 2019 swapping 24 777x aircraft for 37879 dreamliners it's thought this was due at least in part to the delays with triple 7x development going further with fleet diversification emirates also reached a decision to acquire 50 a350 900 aircraft at the dubai air show in 2019 emirates cancelled some a380 orders in 2019 these cancellations actually led to a subsequent announcement from airbus that it would completely end production of the a380 so emirates was really the only airline to ever fully embrace the potential of the a380 and you know if the 251 ever ordered half went to emirates and without their support the programme would have been a complete failure but the world was changing point to point was growing fuel prices were going up emirates no longer needed so many super jumbos so it was last year that they reached an agreement with airbus to cancel 39 of their outstanding order and it ordered up a huge number of a350s instead so it was valentine's day last year with no substantial backlog of a380s to build airbus pulled the plug on the programme the events of 2020 have hit all airlines hard and emirates is no exception despite some talk of cancelling more a380 orders it seems that the carrier will stick with them in fact with other airlines retiring them sir tim clark has commented that they could be even more popular indeed they would become a rare mode of transportation which some might go out of their way to fly tim clark explained the challenges his airline faces in the near future particularly around the future fleet we are nowhere near confident enough that the economics the cash flows the bottom line will put us in a good position to be able to guess if we'll buy a hundred of this or a hundred of that whatever direction emirates goes in the future it has earned a reputation of being a strong competitor in the market of premium long-haul air travel few airlines can match its level of in-flight service and its reach around the world it's likely that the airline will continue this legacy into the future with newer and more efficient jets on the horizon nrx truly opened up the world you know it pioneered hub and spoke operations it led the way on ultra long-haul flying but more than that it increased passenger expectations you know it really raised the bar for other airlines in terms of service and comfort on board it disrupted the long-haul market and it challenged those stagnant flag carrier airlines to really up their game and of course it did it all without ever joining an alliance have you had the opportunity to fly with emirates over its 35-year history share your experience with us by leaving a comment 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