In a further signal of the intentions of Emirates, the world’s biggest international passenger carrier, it announced it will hire up to 10,000 professionals this year to manage its growth. The Dubai based/owned airline and travel Group has already nearly 60,000 people on its payroll.
The airline has a fleet of 171 aircraft, flies to more than 130 destinations and has an order book of 235 aircraft including 70 A380s and the airline’s network covers 95 per cent of the world’s population – reaches 6.6 billion people within 16 hours flying time. Most of the expansion will be to the Americas and India.
Etihad however remain my favourite airline. Some further great experiences recently. And at least aircraft on the AD to Dublin route are modern !!
And now a quick skip through other events and stories from this wonderful country.
Abu Dhabi airport handled (not literally) more than 1.1 million passengers this month. There is to be a change in the code as it affects bounced cheques in Dubai/Abu Dhabi – in future you will ONLY go to jail IF the ‘victim’ can prove ‘criminal intent’ at the time of issuing the cheque. Interesting how that will work !!! The Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth machine was again in evidence this month with the ‘possible’ purchase of a stake in Royal Bank of Scotland and the actual purchase of a small stake in Brazils largest conglomerate – EBX Group. Mudabala was the vehicle used by AD in these cases. After a 10% increase in the Dubai Stock Market in February, March has been a more ‘sober’ month with a jump of just 4%. Not bad though for the two months. But even these attractive gains in equities have been dwarfed by some of the property price increases in some parts of Dubai. And on another good note for Dubai, DP World is to repay $ 3 billion of debt ………………….. EARLY. Just another sign of the ‘credit rehabilitation’ of the Emirate. There is currently a major publicity campaign underway in Dubai to reduce the number of deaths on the road to ‘zero per 100,000 of population’ by 2020. I am a bit confused. WHY the need to be ‘zero per 100,000 of population’. Is it not the same result if it were ‘zero per 10 of population’ or ‘zero per 1 million of population’. Zero is Zero no matter what the divider !!! Or am I missing something ????? Lets see how long the adverts remain on the billboards.
Two things I meant to cover in February was the truly wonderful interview given by Colm McLoughlin from Dubai Duty Free at the Dubai Open Tennis. He was being complimented by the host on Dubai Eye Radio for the wonderful success of the tournament (DDF are sponsors) in attracting the world’s best talent to participate. And in 2012 8 of the top 10 male professionals were present and also 8 of the top 10 females. Colm was then asked how he might be able to improve on this success in 2013 – the question was posed in a challenging way and in an attempt to put pressure on OUR wonderfully skilled orator and representative. I mean HOW could would it be possible to improve on the success that had been achieved to date…………. bringing the small Emirate of Dubai from international tennis obscurity to being one of the top 5 venues on the annual tennis circuit. But without a moment of hesitation Colm responded with an answer that provoked smiles and admiration from those on the station (and listeners) ………………… ‘well I guess if we get 9 out of the top 10 in either category, would do it’. Now print does not do justice or give adequate impact, BUT Colm is such a great ambassador for Ireland ……………. and Dubai Duty Free.
Finally one GREAT, but awful, story from Dubai is about a good friend of mine who owns a full building in International City. He has if fully let. For the past 5 years. So far so good. However a few weeks ago he got a water and electricity bill from Dubai Electricity for Euro 75,000 (for 12 months) to cover ‘common areas’. there’s a mosque been open for the last year it has water pipe connected from my roof and they’ve tapped into my electric cupboard and put a supply to run about 20 fans 12 air con units and all the electrics. Now people can to go jail in this part of the world for calling Mosques ‘Common Areas’. Only in Dubai !!
What the ‘shucks’ is happening in Irish Government and/or Banking :
I REALLY despair at what is happening in the attempts to put Ireland’s debt profile back into some form of order. Top of the list of this frustration is a) the Dept of Finance – which still functions the way it did, and with pretty much the same people, in the Celtic Tiger days with little extra knowledge or skill as to how to repair the damage and b) NAMA which is populated with people, bless their little souls, who are not trained or experienced enough to make the decisions or come up with the ideas that can accelerate Irelands debt recovery. And given that the Top 2 guys in this organisation are Civil/Public Servants HOW is it possible for this organisation to thrive. The solutions for Ireland require commercialism, sound judgement, clever and responsive decision making and rapid execution. To have NONE (of these qualities) OUT OF FIVE IS AWFUL.
Come on Mr Noonan (the Irish Finance Minister). After a good start in your job, you have collapsed into the same under-experienced, cronyism infected, responsibility avoiding and sad Minister as previous incumbents of this critically important function of Government
And the paralysis of NAMA is an embarrassment – particularly given the enormous annual running costs of this mis-managed ‘department of government’.
