The president of Emirates Airline, Tim Clark, said that they promised their customers from the get-go that they would eliminate this surcharge as soon as it was commercially viable to do so. Well that time has come, and the airline is removing the surcharge.

As some people may remember, when the airline first announced the surcharge, as spokeswoman for the company said that the airline had to find some way of absorbing the recent increases in the price of oil. The best way for the airline to do that was to announce a surcharge on tickets. However, she also promised that the surcharge would be continuously reviewed and removed when it was no longer needed.

Of course, this move throws a lot of other airlines into the spotlight. The airlines that do not do away with this surcharge, and do it quickly, are going to be accused of trying to make extra money and blaming it on the price of oil. If Emirates Airline can do away with the surcharge, why can’t other airlines?

However, the real question may be: Just how long is this surcharge going to be gone? If oil prices start to rise again then it is very possible that the airline, as well as many other airlines, will bring back the surcharge. So passengers should enjoy the absence of the surcharge while they can.

Just recently, reports show that Emirates now accounts for some 40 percent of the worldwide orders for Airbus and its A380. Right now Emirates’ order is valued at about $11.5 billion at list price. However, it is also suspected that Emirates got a very big discount for buying in bulk.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders said that this is the single largest A380 order ever placed. He calls the order a sign of confidence in the A380 and of course Airbus as a whole.

Right now, Airbus has delivered 10 A380′s to Emirates, The carrier flies the jets on several different routes, depending on the length of the flight. Either way the jet typically holds about 525 passengers.

However, even with the prospect of having 90 of these superjumbo jets in its fleet by the end of 2017, Emirates is also considering adding A380′s that have an even larger seating capacity. The President of Emirates, Tim Clark, said that the airline would be interested in buying a stretched version of the A380 that can seat about 1,000 people. This is a model that Airbus is now considering building sometime in the near future.

Experts have went ahead and put a perspective on this carrier’s new big order. They point out that, in 1985 the company had just 2 planes. Now it has grown to rival the likes of Singapore Airlines and Qantas.

During Al Mualla’s time as vice president of the division, Emigrates expanded its services throughout the region. The carrier was able to increase its flights into Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and Seychelles. The airline was also able to step up its frequencies across its ten destinations in India to 184 per week.

Tim Clark, who is the Emirates Airline president, said that Majid is a very tremendous asset to the company as a whole. He continues to show great dedication and talent during a long and distinguished career at Emirates.

He went on to say that the fact that he has come up through the ranks, which provides him with experience and insight that is invaluable to the team and the organization. Strong leadership was integral to the company posting record profits during the financial year.

Al Mualla porginally joined the company upon graduating from the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. He now brings global experience to his position after postings in Bangladesh, Lebanon, Riyadh, and the UK. Al Mualla has also previously held a role as vice president of UAE Sales.

Mr Clark went on to say that Majid’s promotion further strengthens the management team at the company. It will enhance the company’s ability to meet the challenges, which continue to face the industry.

The carrier went on to pretty much update the airline industry about its progress at ITB Berline. The airline confirmed that it had increased the number of aircraft in its fleet to 145 over the past year. The airline also went on to say that it added Durban and Luanda to its list of destinations.

Emirates Airlines will begin to offer departures to Amsterdam, Madrid, Dakar, Prague and Tokyo throughout 2010. The president of Emirates Airlines, Tim Clark, said that they are currently looking forward to supporting ITB again this year, and they are pleased to be able to report so many new developments. He finished up by saying that these continue to be testing times for the airline industry. However, the airline’s expansion plans seem to be weathering the storm fairly well.

Just following these big developments, the airline has already hired some 660 new cabin crew. They have went as far as to hire 60 more pilots since March 2009. Another 2,000 cabin crew are expected to be hired this year alone.

Overall, the company’s portfolio has expanded as well. Back in October, Emirates announced its much awaited conservation-based project. This was the Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa near Sydney. Ever since then, it has become the first hotel in the world to achieve carbon neutral certification under the internationally recognized scheme.

Starting July 1^st, flight EK004 will go from being served by a B777-300 to an A380. The jet will be leaving LHR daily at 8:40pm and arriving at Dubai International at 6:30am the next day. This is in addition to the EK002, which is the current daily A380 service.

Passengers will then be able to connect to flight EK412 from Duabi at 9:45am and arrive in Sydney at 5:30am the next day. The same aircraft then flies on to Auckland from Sydney, arriving at 12:15pm the next day.

Emirates’ senior VP of commercial operations in Europe, Salem Obaidalla, said that it had made a long term commitment to double up on the double decker on the UK route. This suggests that Heathrow will be served by two Emirates A380s for quite some time. London Heathrow was one of the key airports Emirates had in mind when the A380 was first launched.

Emirates A380, which has 517 sets, has 14 flat bed first class suites, plus a lounge and shower spa. There are 76 fully flat beds in business and a massive 427 economy seats. Emirates has a total of eight of these huge jumbo jets. These planes serve eight routes, including Toronto, Paris, Jeddah, Bangkok, Seoul, Sydney and Heathrow. Emirates has even talked about serving Beijing with a A380, which would take the amount of these aircraft that the company has to 9.

Right now the plan is for the flight to leave Dubai at 9:55am on these days and arrive at Darkar’s Leopold Sedar Sernghor International Airport at 4pm. The return flight will depart Darkar around 5:40pm and arrive back in Dubai at 7:15am the following morning.

Apparently Emirates is hoping to run this route with three class A340-300 aircraft with 12 first, 42 business and 213 economy class seats. Dakar will be the airline’s 19th African destination. It will also be the very first time that a direct service has been given between the United Arab Emirates and Senegal (which is a country in west Africa). As of right now there are currently no direct flights to Dakar from the UK.

As of now Emirates has been growing ties with Senegal. It has announced a joint agreement in November to assist in the start up of Senegal Airlines. This is a new airline, which is due to start opening later this year. Emirates will be providing commercial support, technical expertise, training and aviation-related goods and services to the new carrier. Currently Dubai and the United Arab Emirates share an open skies agreement.

Karim Wade, who is the senior minister for the Senegal ministry of international cooperations, national planning, air transport and infrastructures, said that this is a new route that will deliver a significant boost to the nation’s trade. It is going to help out the overall commerce and tourism industries in the area as well.

Some witnesses said that the cops handcuffed the suspect, who was described as a white male, and took him off the aircraft. Another individual was also arrested, according to police sources. Airports are now on high alert following the failed Christmas Day bombing on a plane that was heading to Detroit in the United States.

The raid came after a verbal threat was made as the plane taxied to the runway. The pilot of the plane immediately returned the plane to the terminal. Three men were arrested and taken off the plane, and passengers were kept aboard the jet for more than four hours as sniffer dogs searched the cabin.

Police later found out that the threat was simply made by a drunk English passenger. Traveler Cameron McLean said that the police just swarmed the guy and rushed him out. The man seemed pretty clam during the whole thing. There was no screaming or shouting at all.

Despite all of the drama, the airport remained open during all of it. An airport spokesman said that he can confirm that there has been an incident on the EK004 flight to Dubai. Police are attending it, and it is currently no affecting the rest of the airport, which remains open.

Emirates has been financed from Dubai’s $26 billion debt restructuring of Dubai World. This announcement comes as other prized Dubai assets, such as Emaar, distance themselves from the troubled conglomerate and its debt.

The chief executive of Emirates, Tim Clark, said that Emirates remains in a secure financial position despite the global financial crisis. He went on to say that they have never encountered difficulties in obtaining finance for their aircraft acquisition program. This is because both international and regional banks are comfortable with their financial stability.

Emirates said that funding for the six aircrafts was arranged with Citibank, and backed by a guarantee from the European Export Credit Agencies and a second with Doric Asset Finance. However, Emirates did not state when the money was raised. Tim Clark said that Emirates has always honored its financial commitments, and they will continue to progress and expend their network.

The airline is set to receive the first of six aircrafts early next week. The second aircraft will arrive in late December, and the remaining four are going to be delivered in 2010. Emirates is the largest customer for the A380, with 53 planes still on order worth $17.4 billion. It has already taken the delivery of five of them. This is good news for Airbus, which has been posting less than great numbers this year.

The funding deal takes places as other Dubai state-run companies are facing scrutiny over their willingness to pay back over $80 billion in debt.  Emirates, the world’s top buyer of the A380 is fully owned by the city-state.

President of the airline, Tim Clark, said the carrier remains financially secure in spite of concerns over the health of other Dubai state borrowers.

He added that Emirates had never experienced difficulties in obtaining finance for their aircraft acquisition program, with both international and regional banks comfortable with their financial stability.

Clark went on to point out the airline had always honoured its financial commitments and was pressing ahead with its ambitious growth plans.

The airline said it received $1.13 billion in financing for six A380 superjumbos from Citigroup and Doric Asset Finance, and the funds would b used to pay for the aircraft being delivered this year and next.

A recent price list for the French based aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, shows the A380 jet selling for an average of $327.4 million, though airlines usually negotiate discounts especially for bulk orders.

Emirates now own five A380 jets and have a further 53 on order, more than any other airline.  The rapidly growing carrier also operates more Boeing 777 jets than any other airline.

The airline plans to operate the new aircraft on routes to Paris and Seoul later this month.

He said that they were all a bit shocked by what’s happened and the global fall out in the last two days, however Dubai would navigate itself out of this as will the airline.  He remained confident that the airline would not be affected by this.

Dubai shocked the financial world on the 25th of November when it said it would ask creditors of Dubai World and Nakheel to agree to a freeze on billions of dollars of debt as a first-step to restructuring.

Clark went on to say that the airline had independent sukuks, an Islamic bond, and other bonds maturing in 2010 and 2011, and realises that people expect the airline to repay or refinance them on schedule which they will do.

The airline only relies on the UAE for 17 per cent of its business, while the rest is from international travellers, and is dubbed as the jewel of the crown of Dubai’s assets.

Clark concluded by saying that if there was more turbulence then the airline would moderate their growth to account for this but they’re not going to stop growing, Emirates was a great business.