Emirates business model
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The so-called "Emirates business model" is the business model that lies at the heart of Emirates's commercial success.[1] Its main ingredients are a lean workforce comparable to a low-cost carrier and a flat organisational structure that allows the airline to maintain low overhead costs.[2]
Some industry analysts believe the airline is second only to Ryanair on a cash cost per seat basis due to lower operating costs at its Dubai base.[2] This enables it to serve secondary destinations profitably by connecting these via its global hub in Dubai.[3][4]
Emirates has not joined any global airline alliance (although they planned to join Star Alliance in 2000, they remained independent), stating that unless an airline is the lead participant in such an alliance – e.g. Lufthansa in the Star Alliance[citation needed] or Air France in SkyTeam[citation needed] – individual alliance members' freedom of action is compromised by the imposition of common alliance goals that mainly serve the interests of the alliance leaders.[5][6]
Since 1995, Emirates had operated an all-widebody fleet, largely composed of Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s. This results in lower unit costs compared to other large airlines operating a mix of narrow- and widebody fleets and allows the airline to use the aircraft's cargo capacity to increase its revenues and total profits. Since Dubai International Airport does not have any night flying restrictions, Emirates achieves a higher utilisation of its aircraft than competitors. It also has lower staff costs than longer established rivals, because in Dubai there are no unions and there is an abundance of cheap labour from India and Pakistan.[2]