The chief executive of Glasgow Airport’s owner has revealed high hopes of Emirates returning to a double-daily service to Dubai soon – declaring it is in the airline’s “roadmap” and highlighting the type of aircraft he expects to be used for a second flight.
Kam Jandu, chief executive of AGS Airports, flagged demand for such a second daily flight to Dubai from Glasgow Airport and also underlined the potential for cargo, including seafood.
He highlighted plans for extending refrigeration capabilities at the cargo-handling facility at Glasgow Airport.
Mr Jandu had last April revealed the airport was in talks with Emirates about a return to a double-daily service, as reported exclusively by The Herald at the time.
He has now expressed his confidence that a second daily Emirates flight between Glasgow and Dubai would be operated on a Boeing 777, with the existing service remaining on the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft.
In an exclusive interview with The Herald, Mr Jandu expressed his confidence that Emirates is “coming back to double-daily” between Glasgow Airport and Dubai.
He added: “Our hope was [it] could happen from this winter, which, essentially, is November onwards, but they, to be clear, have never guaranteed that that's going to happen. Unfortunately, they have hundreds of airports around the world where they also have positive business cases to add capacity. So, I just don't know where we are in that pecking order.”
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Mr Jandu also flagged “next year” as a possibility for when the second daily flight could be introduced.
Asked about the return of an Emirates double-daily service between Glasgow and Dubai, Mr Jandu replied: “That's in their roadmap, in the last conversation we had with them, because, again, I mean, it should never be underestimated: we have demand. They used to have a double-daily here before. So they have a very different mix of proposition into Edinburgh because it's a lot of leisure traffic inbound, definitely, whereas we have got a proven demand-based opportunity from here.
“Moreover, and this is a very interesting part of their request for the second flight, which would probably be a [Boeing] 777, is additional cargo capability because, it was a surprise to me, a 777, even though it is a smaller plane, has more cargo capacity than an A380."
He added: “And a key driver for them, and the people that we have spoken to, which is part of that double-daily conversation about why they want Glasgow…for example, is to have the ability to get much more fresh fish, in particular, on to the aircraft. It's still done today - they source it from wherever the fishery is, but it's transported down to Manchester because they don't have enough capacity. So we're looking at extending refrigeration capabilities at the handling facility in Glasgow, working with how quickly we can get more, it's not just fish - seafood, on to the aircraft. And, of course, complement that with whisky as well because they're the two biggest export products that they take via Dubai.
“They have a vision of having the ability to take a fresh lobster from Scotland that's still alive to a destination on the same day, through some clever, clever process of doing it, because that is an up-and coming demand-based opportunity for them. And I was surprised how much emphasis they put on that as opposed to – ‘plus we've got all the other passengers that want to go’ - which they do have because, you know, they're not incompatible. They need the passenger plane to perform. But the cargo story is, well, that secondary has become a much bigger story than we anticipated.”
Asked about the existing daily flight, Mr Jandu said it would “stay as an A380”.
He highlighted potential for Emirates to introduce a premium economy cabin, which does not currently exist on the A380 flying between Glasgow and Dubai, by refitting the aircraft.
Mr Jandu said of when premium economy could arrive on the Glasgow-Dubai A380 service: “With the wind in the right direction, it could be the next 12 months. But the double-daily is complementary to that.”
AviAlliance, the airports platform of Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), installed Mr Jandu as chief executive of AGS Airports immediately after completing its acquisition of AGS, which also owns Aberdeen and Southampton airports, from Macquarie of Australia and Ferrovial of Spain for an enterprise value of £1.53 billion in January last year.
Emirates currently operates a daily service between Edinburgh Airport and Dubai on an Airbus A350.
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