Diramakini (www.diramakini.co.tz) caught up with the Emirates Country Manager,Majid Al Falasi and asked him how the airline was forging forward since it resumed flights to Dar es Salaam. Below are excerpts from the interview.
Q. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the easing of air travel across the globe, what should Tanzanians expect in terms of comfort and services while flying Emirates for business or pleasure?
A. At Emirates, we have implemented a comprehensive set of measures to ensure the safety
of its customers and employees on the ground and in the air, including the
distribution of complimentary hygiene kits containing masks, gloves, hand sanitizers and antibacterial wipes to all customers.All cabin crew on board are fully kitted out in PPEs. To uphold the
highest standards of safety and hygiene, Emirates has added a cabin service
assistant (CSA) to the crew complement on flights over 1.5 hours to ensure
lavatories are cleaned at frequent intervals of every 45 minutes. 
Emirates Tanzania County Manager Majid Al Falasi
In premium classes, single use menus and wine lists are provided to passengers. Comfort items such as mattresses, pillows, blankets, headphones and toys are hygienically sealed. Emirates continues to serve hot meals, using high quality, cutlery and crockery, sterilized before each use.
On the ground, Emirates provides complimentary hygiene kits to be given to every passenger upon check in at Dubai International Airport and on flights to Dubai. Protective barriers at each check-in desk and immigration counter have been installed to provide additional safety reassurance to passengers and employees during interaction over the counter.
In addition Emirates was the first airline to provide free cover on COVID-19 related medical expenses should a customer be diagnosed with COVID-19 during their travel while being away from home.
O. Diramakini understands that in order to manage operational costs, Emirates made changes to its inflight entertainment experience with the inflight Wi-Fi and live television broadcasts being dropped. Has this affected all flights? What other communications services are still available for business travellers?
A. The pandemic has disrupted many business models, including airlines and satellite and data providers. When Emirates was flying a full fleet we were able to purchase data in bulk, which made offering a free WiFi service feasible even though the airline still subsidised the service with millions of dollars every year.
Live TV was hugely popular on Emirates’ ice, with sport being the greatest attraction. The service comes with significant data and licensing costs, but we invested in it as part of our overall inflight customer experience. With fewer global sporting events at the moment, Livet has much reduced value.
Our customers can keep up to date with the news headlines either via their mobile phone data roaming or via a WiFi package. Like all airlines, we’ve had to adapt our inflight offering to the current situation, but we are monitoring developments closely and look forward to resuming these popular services when practicable.
Emirates continues to offer our award-winning ice entertainment system for all passengers travelling with us. Customers can choose from over 4,500 movies, TV shows, music and games in close to 40 languages.
Q. What guarantees is Emirates giving travellers with regards to their health concerns while flying or in transit at the Dubai International Airport?
To offer peace of mind and reassurance to customers, Emirates was the first airline to provide free cover on COVID-19 related medical expenses should a customer be diagnosed with COVID-19 during their travel while being away from home.
Travellers from Tanzania can travel with confidence and assurance as the cover is immediately effective for customers flying on Emirates until 31 October 2020 (first flight to be completed on or before 31 October 2020), and is valid for 31 days from the moment they fly the first sector of their journey.
Q. With less passengers onboard, how are the new seating arrangements especially in the economy class? Are you seeing an increase in the business community buying into the business class or the economy class?
A. Social distancing onboard is something discussed a lot, but it simply isn’t practical for airlines to implement. To date, there is little confirmed evidence of onboard COVID-19 transmission between passengers.
The risk is considered low. In the first place, it’s unlikely that an infected person will sit next to you. Government health screening and pre-departure biosafety measures minimise this possibility.
Since the beginning of August, all passengers flying to and through Dubai require negative COVID-19 PCR test certificates before they can board. Which means our flights and Dubai hub are essentially sterile “green zones”, or as safe as we can make it.
On business travel, we are seeing an uptick in Business Class demand on our flights, especially to important global commercial and trade centres. Emirates First and Business Class services continue to be in demand due to the nature of our premium offering. Passengers appreciate the privacy and personal space afforded by our First Class Private Suites and Business Class seats with privacy dividers.
Q. What should Tanzanians travelling to a Dubai post-COVID-19 expect?
A. Dubai remains highly attractive to international visitors. The city re-opened to tourists on 7 July and in the immediate 3 weeks after that, we saw more than 1.6 million searches for destination Dubai on emirates.com.
Dubai was one of the world’s first cities to obtain Safe Travels stamp from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) – which endorses Dubai’s comprehensive and effective measures in every category to ensure guest health and safety. Since re-opening, so far the number of new COVID-19 cases across the UAE has remained steady and is on a downward trend.
Q. What are the statistics of travellers from Dar es Salaam to Dubai using Emirates over the last three years?
A. Over the last two years, we have seen progressive growth in passenger demand to and from Dar es Salaam. From 2017-2019, Emirates carried close to 300,000 passengers between Dar es Salaam and Dubai.
Q. In your own opinion what do you think will be the future of travel with Emirates?
A. As an airline, our aim is to operate as a lean, agile organisation through utilising cutting-edge technology to make the on ground and onboard journeys safe, enjoyable and seamless for our customers.
Post-pandemic and once we have recover most of our operations, we will connect passengers through an even broader network than we have today. We will always prioritise innovation through our product and service, and will continue to pioneer and introduce industry-leading products that will continue to transform the air travel experience