OUR GLOBAL PRESENCE
Emirates and Germany
Emirates has helped enhance German connectivity for over 30 years, launching our first flight to Frankfurt in July 1987. Today, we operate passenger flights to Germany from Dubai, serving the cities of Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf and Hamburg as well as all-cargo flights to Frankfurt.
You can read more about Emirates’ operations in our factsheet:
AIRBUS REMAINS A KEY PART OF OUR OPERATIONS
Germany, Emirates and Airbus
The first Airbus aircraft joined the Emirates fleet in 1987.
The relationship between Emirates and Airbus has continued to strengthen since then. In November 2019 Emirates confirmed an order for 50 Airbus A350-900 XWB aircraft worth US$16 billion, to be delivered from 2023 onwards. Emirates is also the biggest customer of the Airbus A380 by a large margin, with 123 aircraft ordered, which continue to be delivered. Emirates’ A350 and A380 purchases support thousands of jobs at Airbus and its suppliers in Germany. According to Frontier Economics, the 13 A380 aircraft delivered to Emirates in 2013 alone created a GDP impact of €1.2 billion and supported 14,500 direct, indirect and induced jobs in Germany.
SUSTAINING A STEADY FLOW OF TRADE AND TRAFFIC TO AND FROM GERMANY
Emirates’ operations to Germany
Our passenger numbers on German routes reached 2.4 million passengers in 2019. Our cargo carriage on these routes, exceeding 122,000 tons in 2019, played an important role in facilitating German foreign trade and opening up new markets for German exporters.
Under the current air services arrangements between the UAE and Germany, we are entitled to serve just four destinations in Germany, and we are already fully utilising this capacity. Adding additional points would satisfy the strong surplus market demand and offer more choice to our German customers. Since 2004 Emirates has sought the right to launch two new routes in Germany, connecting Dubai to Berlin and Stuttgart. A 2012 economic impact study by the Institute of Air Transport and Airport Research (DLR), 'The impact of Emirates airline on the German economy'(Opens a PDF in a new tab) estimates that a daily flight to each of these destinations could support 1,000 additional jobs. Emirates firmly believes that creating connectivity through the expansion of our network will have positive effects on economic growth, the global competition of companies, trade as well as tourism and will thus generate additional economic value for Germany.
However, opposition to long-haul air services from Berlin and Stuttgart seem to be continuing, with Lufthansa being behind efforts to maintain the long-standing status quo.
OUR ECONOMIC IMPACT IN GERMANY
A major investor in Germany
We contribute EUR 288 million to the German economy each year via our direct expenditures and marketing spend, which translates into Emirates having a significant impact on employment and economic growth in Germany.
We have frequently enlisted the help of industry experts to evaluate more closely those impacts of our activities on the German economy.
A 2015 study by Frontier Economics 'Emirates’ economic impact in Europe'(Opens a PDF in a new tab) shows that Emirates’ operations at German airports supported 11,040 direct, indirect and induced jobs in 2013 alone. This represents a GDP impact of EUR 1 billion.
Earlier findings from the Institute of Air Transport and Airport Research at the Cologne-based German Aerospace Centre - Germany's national research centre for aeronautics and space (DLR) – estimated we add more than EUR 1.6 billion to the German economy and support 18,000 German jobs annually. The analysis also calculated that with the introduction of twice daily services to Berlin and Stuttgart, the expected additional benefits would include the generation of 2,000 new German jobs.
Follow the link below for more details from the report: 'The impact of Emirates Airline on the German economy'.
STRENGTHENING UAE AND GERMANY TIES
Germany-UAE: a strategic partnership
The UAE and Germany signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2004, further enhancing strong ties in political, economic and cultural areas.
"The UAE is our most important economic partner in the Arab region… We are interested in intensifying our economic relations."
– HE Dr. Angela Merkel, German Federal Chancellor
The economic partnership between the two countries is considerable: the UAE is the largest buyer of German products in the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and Germany’s 11th biggest export market outside Europe, with German exports to the UAE reaching EUR 8.7 billion in 2019, and its EUR 7.6 billion trade surplus with the UAE was Germany's 10th largest globally. There are some 1,000 German companies operating in the UAE, approximately 600 of them in Dubai.
Emirati investors increasingly choose Germany for their multi-million euro investments in a wide range of German industries and companies. Visitor numbers from the Arab Gulf States into Germany have also been increasing rapidly, outperforming the growth rate of German international tourist arrivals as a whole. Visitors from the Gulf tend to stay in Germany for 11 days on average, with a mean spending per holiday trip of EUR 4,794; or EUR 448 per day. Emirates’ flights to Germany have played a catalytic role in strengthening the excellent economic partnership between the two countries.
