OREANDA-NEWS. 05 March 2014 Emirates, recently named the most valuable global airline brand, returns to the world's leading travel trade fair at ITB Berlin, once again signaling its commitment to the European travel and aviation market with its largest trade show presence outside of the airline's Dubai base.

Emirates has been exhibiting for almost 20 years at ITB Berlin, which will be held from 5th to 9th March this year. The airline has been a part of European skies, cities and communities since 1987 when it began operations to London Gatwick followed by Frankfurt. Emirates currently operates passenger and cargo services to 38 destinations in 21 countries in Europe and the Russian Federation.

“With more than 10,000 exhibitors from over 180 countries, the world literally converges at ITB Berlin. For Emirates, a global connector of people and places, the event is a perfect platform for us to demonstrate our product and services and share ideas with new and existing trade partners, customers and industry stakeholders”, said Thierry Antinori, Emirates' Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.

“We are currently operating an average of 118 daily flights to and from Europe; and Germany is our second largest European market. As international air services are one of the most important drivers of economic growth, we would also like to serve Stuttgart and the German capital Berlin. Emirates is proud to serve other prominent capital cities globally like Washington D.C, Beijing, Paris, London, Rome and Vienna and we hope to fly to future ITB Berlin events directly on Emirates as we truly believe in the region's strong credentials as a profitable, but underserved, intercontinental market,” added Antinori.

In 2013 alone, Emirates carried over 6.3 million passengers from Europe to popular destinations like Bangkok, Colombo, Mauritius, Male in the Maldives and of course Dubai.

Over the last year, Emirates added eight new destinations to its global network including two in Europe, and it received 23 aircraft, including 15 Airbus A380s. At the Dubai Airshow in November 2013, Emirates announced the largest-ever aircraft order in civil aviation with an order for 150 Boeing 777X and 50 Airbus A380 aircraft. These latest orders bring Emirates' total firm order book to current 377 aircraft at a total estimated value of over USD 164 billion.

Emirates was the first airline to order the European Airbus A380 and currently has 45 in service and 95 on order, more than any other airline by far. The Emirates A380 fleet is connecting people and cargo through its current operations to 26 destinations worldwide, including 98 weekly services to nine destinations in Europe. The Munich route will become an all-A380 service from March 30, and Gatwick will also welcome an A380 on one of Emirates' three daily flights the same day. Emirates will also add a second A380 to its popular Moscow service, making it an all-A380 service by 1st August. Earlier this year, Zurich and Barcelona joined the Emirates A380 network.

Emirates has been a key strategic customer for the A380 programme, one of the largest engineering projects ever carried out, providing 46 per cent of the customer demand that underwrites the project. The total employment effect of the A380 programme will support the creation of 200,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs with a vast majority of those being in France, Germany, Spain and the UK.

At ITB Berlin, Emirates will take the opportunity to recruit more German-speaking cabin crew to be part of the Emirates success story and to support its growing fleet of modern aircraft, including the flagship A380.

As part of the airline's international team of 17,500 cabin crew, Emirates employs almost 7,400 Cabin Crew members from 42 countries in Europe speaking over 28 European languages. Throughout the last year, Emirates received over 129,000 applications for cabin crew positions from Europe.

In addition to destinations, amenities and services onboard, visitors to the Emirates ITB Berlin stand will also be able to find the latest information on the company's businesses and initiatives including Emirates Holidays, Arabian Adventures, and Recruitment.

Emirates will also launch a new interactive game at its ITB stand this year with a digital onsite competition. The 'Emirates 60 Second Challenge' will engage and educate guests and visitors on the airline's latest developments, trivia and interesting facts. Users just need to input their data to enter the competition and share their scores on their Facebook or LinkedIn pages for a chance to win a prize at the end of every day. The daily prize will be two Economy class return tickets to Dubai.

Emirates will also showcase its premium A380 experience where visitors can see replicas of the iconic Emirates' A380 Onboard Shower Spa and Onboard Lounge, and sample the industry-leading Emirates' First Class Suites.