admin Over the summer travel months of July and August, Emirates has announced that it handled nearly 1.2 million customers at its hub, compared to 402,000 customers during the same period in 2020, highlighting the safe and smooth resumption of international travel to and through Dubai. In fact, in 2020, Emirates was the largest international airline carrying over 15.8 million passengers, according to IATA’s latest World Air Transport Statistics 2021.
Initiating the Coveted Reopening
Since Dubai re-opened to international visitors, Emirates has gradually restored its network and flight schedules from just a handful of cities in July 2020 to over 120 destinations in 2021, with more flights to be layered onto over 20 Emirates routes by October 2021.
Always aiming to provide the best possible travel experience, particularly during a turbulent time for international travel, Emirates says it has continued to deliver innovative new customer services, ensure the health and safety of its customers and employees, and provide the most updated travel information for customers across the world. These investments over the past 12 months have enabled Emirates to facilitate the resumption of travel, while enhancing customer experience.
Accelerate digital innovations: biometrics and self-service check-in kiosks
Emirates has seen an upward trend in customers opting to use its biometric channels since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it plans to expand the number of boarding gates equipped with biometric scanners. The airline has also worked closely with Dubai Airport stakeholders including the immigration team (GDRFA) to re-activate Smart Gates that enable eligible travellers to cruise through passport control on arrival and departure in a matter of seconds, using new contactless technology.
Enabling customers to check-in, receive their boarding pass, choose seats on board, and drop off their bags, Emirates’ new self-service check-in and bag drop kiosks have seen increasing usage since its introduction in September 2020. In July and August alone, over 568,000 customers used this convenient service, which enabled them to skip queuing at the counter, breeze through the airport and proceed directly to immigration. Following the positive reception from customers, Emirates will introduce six additional self-service check-in and bag drop kiosks in its First and Business Class terminal area in this month, September 2021.
Other New Tech
In the past year (2021), Emirates also introduced new technology to make it easier for customers to report delayed or damaged bags on emirates.com, reducing paperwork and stress, improving transparency, and enabling Emirates to serve customers better in terms of checking, tracing and resolving baggage related queries.
Tapping on its global network and teams on the ground to collect and verify the latest entry requirements for each destination, Emirates’ COVID-19 information hub, updated at least once daily, has become one of the top authoritative sources of information for travellers. Emirates has also been a forerunner in adopting digital verification solutions for travel, from adopting the IATA Travel Pass to partnering with the UAE Health Authorities to enable seamless digital checks for COVID-19 travel documentation.
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