Emirates Airline is a Dubai-based airline established in 1985. It has grown rapidly to become one of the largest airlines in the world, employing over 84,000 workers across six continents. Emirates focuses on providing luxury international air travel and differentiates itself through superior customer experience. It has been successful in its goals of gaining global brand awareness through sports sponsorships and replicating the glamour of air travel. Emirates holds a strong position in the differentiated higher quadrant of Porter's four quadrants model due to its luxury product offering. It faces competition from airlines that focus on cost-leadership, regional networks, and differentiated customer experience.

1. Emirates Airline Case Study
Hosp 4060
By: BenjaminEvans

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Benjamin Evans
HOSP 4060
Professor Hassan
02/25/16
Final Case Study
EssayOne 4 points
Provide basic background information about this company. Critique the mission and vision
statements of this company using the tools and techniques presented in this class. Conversely, if
they do not have eitherof these tools,suggest a sample mission and sample vision statement for
this company then critique each. Include an analysis of their current goals.
Emirates Airlines is very brief but impressive for what they have been able to
accomplish in the short span of time that they have been around. The idea of Emirates
Airlines came about in 1985 when, Dubai experienced reductions in air
service.”(Alcacer) The first time that people saw the Emirates Airlines in flight was in the
year of 1985, where the company had two aircrafts in their fleet with only $10 million in
capital that was funded by none other than the Government of Dubai. Fast forwarding 31
year from 1985 the company has the most Boeing 777’s in their Fleet with 102 currently
with expansion of that number in the near future. When Emirates Airlines entered the
airline market in the Mideast there was mainly one company monopolizing the market,
Gulf Air was destroying all competition. At first expansion wasn’t something that
Emirates Airlines needed to do but it’s been a must, due to the lack of interest in Dubai.
The regional service was a good beginning for the airline but their future was in
international travel, with of course the help of technology that became a reality in 2003.
With traveling from the US to Dubai or Mideast for that matter, before 2003 required lay
overs in countries before making it to your final destination, which for travelers added

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stress and anxiety to their trips. In 2003, “when new aircraft technology allowed Emirates
to initiate direct non-stop service to New York and Sydney”, created a less stress and
anxiety for travelers looking to travel these great lengths. (Alcacer) In this day in age
Emirates Airlines employ’s over 84,000 workers across six continents and as of 2013 was
named the Best in the Middle East by Airline Passenger Experience (APEX) Passenger
Choice Awards, which only 28 years prior the company was letting their first aircraft take
flight.
When looking for Emirates Airline’s Mission Statement and Vision was a task
that became very difficult to find. On their website when looking under their mission,
vision and values, all that comes up is their efforts in regards to their philanthropic help.
After looking more in depth into the website I was able to find their vision and values of
the company. According to theemiratesgroup.com, their vision and values are, “A strong
and stable leadership team, ambitious yet calculated decision-making and ground-
breaking ideas all contribute to the creation of great companies. Of course, these have
played a major part in our development, but we believe our business ethics are the
foundation on which our success has been built. Caring for our employees and
stakeholders, as well as the environment and the communities we serve, have played a
huge part in our past and will continue to shape our future.” When analyzing their vision
and values, I noticed some key points that they have which from an outsiders perspective
shows that they are an ethical and great company. One of those key points was, “we
believe our business ethics are the foundation on which our success has been
built.”(Emirates) By stating this in their values and vision shows that as a company they
are indeed a ethical company to work for from a business perspective and employee view

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point. Since their business ethics are how they operate their day-to-day tasks while as
well as how employees are treated at work as well. At the beginning of the statement it
states, “ambitious yet calculated decision-making” is such a critical aspect to have apart
of a business. With rapid growth in a company can lead to a plateau or worse a decrease
in growth due to poor decision-making on the company’s leaders. By making calculated
decision-making the company is not only ensuring their present status as a profitable
company but as well as their future as a profitable company.
Currently Emirate Airlines has a few goals that are all towards growing the
company. One of their goals is, “trying to replicate the Pan Am experience, to bring the
glamour back into flying.” (Alcacer) To me personally I feel that this goal is okay but the
company should not be trying to replicate another company but instead going off their
same vision to make the experience better than Pan Am. Since at the end of the day
Emirates Airlines is their own entity therefore they can model their guest experience off
another company but to state they want to replicate a companies experience seems to
exact. Another goal of theirs was to gain the awareness of the word via sports, which is
one goal that they achieved, and they awareness expands day by day because of this. By
sponsoring a team that play the number one sport (soccer), in the world the exposure and
advertising is the best asset that they have at their fingertips. Even if the team is not the
best team their name and logo is on their jerseys and merchandize therefore when any
one sees someone wearing a jersey, in their mind there begin to think about the airline,
which can lead to indirect purchasing of flights. By entering the sports world as a goal
and achieving that goal I believe its safe to say that the leaders in the company know
exactly what they are doing in regards to expanding the company for new trends and the

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future.
EssayTwo 4 points
Using Porter’s four quadrant theory, identify and explain this company’s position in the
marketplace, include analysis of competitors for the other three quadrants. Include in your
analysis a discussion of the five forces model and its impact on this company and industry
segment. Note: Visuals can be beneficial to communicate your analysis.
When looking at the four-quadrant theory presented by Porter, I believe that
Emirates Airlines is in the Differentiation Higher segment of the quadrant. The reasoning
for this quadrant is because Emirates Airline’s is like the Cadillac of airlines for foreign
airlines. Emirates Airline’s take pride in offering an experience to guests that are
exclusively only found on their aircrafts. Their current plans are to bring the Glamour
back into flying which is only found in higher quality airliners. An indirect competitor of
Emirates that would fall into Overall Cost Leadership quadrant is Spirit Airlines that are
notorious for their cheap flights. Granted their flights are cheaper the worldviews on their
quality of flights and service is very poor. When looking at their direct competition,
Turkish Airlines would fall under Differentiation Focus based on the build up of their
airline. One of the aspects that set Turkish Airlines apart from Emirates is their fleet of
aircrafts. Turkish’s fleet includes small narrow-body aircrafts that are. “Able to land at
many of the secondary cities where wide-body aircraft (such as Emirates’ A380s)
couldn’t land” (Alcacer) Their vision is to be able to serve the “Villages” of the
surrounding countries, which is a niche market that only Turkish Airlines is truly
specializing in currently. Emirates Airlines competitor Qatar Airlines I feel would fall
under the cost focus quadrant based on the make up of the airline. Qatar Airlines is 100%
owned by the government with this being said the airline is an entity of the government

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and this is where their focus is narrow. Their business plan is to target businessmen &
women in the world and similar to Emirates they have one main hub and no true sub hubs
in their destination chart. Granted the rapid growth of amount of passengers per year
being in double digit growth can lead to the airline leaning towards differentiation focus
with increasing cost per seat, because the demand is high with supply being low. Lastly
their main regional competitor, Etihad is the main competitor is regards to the guest
experience. But in regards to the quadrants Etihad will fall under Differentiation Higher
due to their numerous amounts of awards with Skytrax. With having 51% of the airline
owned by private entities and the other 49% own by the government, the airlines
opportunity to expand and be creative is greater than all of their regional competitors.
To begin looking into the Five Competitive
Forces by Michael Porter is relation to Emirates Airlines,
the best place to start is with the supplier power column.
Currently Emirates Airlines works with Airbus and
Boeing for aircrafts. Granted the two aircraft producers
work with Emirates, Airbus has nearly double the amount
of aircrafts for order at 128 than Boeing at a mere 63.
Which questions the relationship with Boeing since based
off current numbers there are more Boeing aircrafts in
their fleet. Because of this Airbus is their largest current
supplier for the airline and it would be
very pricy to make a change in this area.

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Since this would mean changing flight types from cargo to passenger or vice versa or
having to create layovers because the aircraft cannot go the same distance as the
competitors aircraft. The next segment of the focus will be buying power, and for
Emirates Airlines they have been one of the more stable companies in the past 10+ years
for buying power. From the case study the graph above shows the profit & loss in billions
for all airlines in comparison to Emirates. Over the years Emirates was able to stay above
the negative and earn a profit in every year, which is something that the rest of the
industry cannot say. Because of this their opportunity to grow is not a financial issue but
instead what the leaders choose to do. With most companies they have to outsource for
funding to grow their business, but for being consistently earning a profit every year is
the main reason why they were able to order 90 Airbus A380’s. With earning a profit
every year, Emirates Airlines also is located in one of the top countries for high quality of
infrastructure in air traffic during 2012-2013. Their Index is a 6.7, which is tied for
second best of the top 20 countries. Their competitors, Qatar ranks in at 6.1 while Turkey
for Turkish Airlines is not even in the top 20.
Competitive Rivalry and Threat of Substitution can go hand and hand for the third
and fourth force. From a regional perspective they only have three main competitors,
while internationally they have a vast amount of competitors. But one thing that helps
their rivalry with other companies is their code sharing with other airlines. Currently
Emirates partners with Qantas which, “was both the largest Australian carrier and
historically a dominant carrier for traffic between Australia and Europe” and Jet Blue
which is currently just outside the top five for largest US airliners. (Alcacer) When
looking at their direct competitors, Emirates is the only airline that is investing an ample

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amount of money into creating a better experience for their guest. Their attention to detail
and guest comfortably is what truly sets them apart from an experience perspective. One
issue that is always prevalent in airlines is the threat of substitution due to the mass
amount of airliners out that that go to very similar destinations. Granted the industry is so
competitive, Emirates Airlines does have the competitive advantage over all airlines with
when it comes to flights in and out of Dubai since that is where their Mega-hub is
located. Last force to look into is threat of new entry. Due to the large number of airliners
in the world today the idea of staring up a new airline is a crazy idea. But with this being
said it is not crazy to enter different markets of the industry or shift markets in the airline
industry. We see this happen a lot with mergers when the two airliners join forces and
usually choose one market to stay in, in a attempt to monopolize that market. With being
the main Airliner in Dubai, their opportunity to expand into any region/country is present
which is a positive aspect that they can act one or choose not to. So far earning a profit
every year in the past ten years shows the airline knows what they are doing, which begs
the question why change something if its working.
EssayThree 4 points
Create a brief problem statement for this company. Next, conduct a SWOT analysis for them
including as many of the PESTEL external factors and internal factors as possible in your
assessment. Based on your SWOT analysis suggest three strategies they could pursue to more
firmly establish their competitive position. Be sure to define the strategy and provide an
appropriate example for this particular company.
After looking over the case study on, Emirates Airlines, I feel that one issue that
the company may run into in the future is their growth into more hubs and not relying on
only Dubai as their “mega-hub”. With the trends of the 21st century leaning towards
traveling amongst the “trans-Pacific routes between Australasia and the Americas”,

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Emirates Airlines will lose the opportunity to gain a great deal of money if they do not
jump on the trend of the 21st century.
Strengths | Internal:
 With Emirates Airlines representing nearly 160 nationalities they are one of the most
diverse company’s in the world.
 Their marketing team has the privilege of being able to market via their soccer team
which is not only a revenue booster but as well as a advertising wish come true for ease
of advertising.
 Paving the way for equality by being apart of the trend of hiring female pilots for their
aircrafts.
 Their plans to expand are greater than all other airlines with ordering 90 Airbus A380
that is 66 more than the next airline. Preparing the airline for expansion to new
destinations with increasing their Fleet of Airbus A380 tremendously.
 Goals to better guest experience, which is not seen as goals for their competitors.
Weaknesses | Internal:
 With having only one Mega-hub the company is not capitalizing on the possible revenue
that lies outside of their mega-hub, Dubai.
o Expanding the company to creating a mini-hub in the US can lead
to more partnerships and more flights out of the US which is a
market that Emirates has yet to full dive into just yet.
 From a ownership perspective they fall into the same category as Qatar Airways and
Etihad for being 100% own by the government while Turkish Airlines as one of their
main competitors has the competitive advantage with only being 49% owned by the

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government.
 With having such a large order out for new aircrafts, with technology changing almost
yearly now, their order of the older aircraft might be a lost with newer aircrafts entering
the market. Having all their money invested in one type of aircraft, is putting “all their
eggs in one basket” which in return can turn out to fall and be a negative business
decision.
 With the current president approaching retirement in the near future there is no current
point person to enter his role, which can lead to a negative change in power as well as a
fall in the company financially.
 From a political perspective entering into different countries can or cannot be possible
due to the country’s tie to that country.
Opportunities | External
 Once Airbus follows through with the order of A380’s the expansion in their fleet will
help bring more flights to airports.
 With entering the sports world with soccer, they can continue the trend with entering
racecars or cricket, which is internationally very popular.
 Continue their “code sharing” routes and expanding to other airlines besides the current
ones that they work with.
 Expanding their cargo planes and continues to be the largest cargo carrier, which will
increase revenue.
Threats | External

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 Other airlines attempting to take a great stake in the cargo business which Emirates
currently lead in.
 Possible decline in flights to and from Dubai will lead to a financial crisis with their
Mega-hub being based in Dubai.
 An inadequate replace of the president can lead to a fall in the company.
 Airbus being unable to complete the order in a timely manor or have issues with creating
the aircrafts that can lead to legal issues.
When looking into strategies that Emirates Airlines could use I felt that three
excerpts from the Art of War by Sun Tzu would be the best strategies for them in regards
to getting a advantage over their competition. The first strategy from Sun Tzu is “The
supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”(Tzu) This strategy will be
implemented by Emirates Airlines pushing towards their goal of trying to offer an
experience like Pan Am used to. If they were to pull money out of their marketing budget
to be able to achieve their goal sooner than later, they would be implementing Sun Tzu’s
teaching, since they would not be fighting back in regards with marketing efforts. But
instead putting that marketing money towards improving their airline staff and guest
experience, which in return will subdue the enemy without fighting because of the
incomparable level of service that Emirates Airlines, would be providing.
The next teaching by Sun Tzu that I feel will be beneficial to Emirates Airlines,
“When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make
them move.”(Tzu) This means not just during the off-season of air travel but also during
the high season as well continually growing the brand. Being able to expand and grow the
brand during the high season when competitors as simply worrying about the over flow

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of booking will give Emirates Airlines a huge advantage over the competition. This will
show the world that Emirates Airlines is not only preparing for the future 365 days a year
but still able to operate as a business without having to shut down or fall behind. Too
often companies plan to only grow when they have a slow time period or during the
offseason, but they idea implies having large jumps in growth instead of a steady growth
rate. Therefore by implementing a steady growth, Emirates Airlines will be able to make
the enemy toil while they are relaxed because they are not worrying about trying to find
travelers during the high season because the demand is so high while the supply is low.
The last strategy I feel that can be beneficial for Emirates Airlines is “Treat your
men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest
valley.”(Tzu) Now how this will relate to Emirates Airlines is the men being the
employees. In corporate America, there seems to always be no connection with the
leaders of the company and the “little people” of the company. This is why there are only
100 best companies to work for and not top 1,000 companies to work for since most
companies fall into the category of having no true connection with the opposing
employees. By the leaders taking time to connect with their employees the employees
will be happier employees, which will lead to a happy work environment and in return
happy guests. With being in the service industry the line staff is the first point of contact
for guests therefore if those line employees are not happy, that emotion will most likely
get passed on to the guest. Therefore by treating all employees as if they were “your own
beloved son” employees will more so enjoy coming to work and that happiness and
enjoyment will transcend to the guest, which will lead to good word of mouth of the
company.

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EssayFour 4 points
Discuss this company’s current financial stability (include financial ratios and stock information,
if applicable,to demonstrate yourassessment). In other words, are they financially stable and
how do you know? Note: Visuals can be beneficial to communicate your analysis.
There is no question that Emirates Airlines is a financially stable company.
The past ten years in the airline industry has been a rollercoaster for most airlines
with fluctuating from losing money in one year to earning a profit in the next. But,
throughout those ten years
financially, Emirates
Airlines was able to move
away from the industry
trend and actually earn a
profit each of the past ten
years. To date Emirates
Airlines has earned a profit
each of the last 27 years and
this year alone they, “posted
Dh5.5 billion ($1.5 billion) profit, up 34 per cent from last year.” (Staff) Financially it’s
an accounting dream to increase profit by at least a positive number, but by 34% is
amazing and shows how stable the company is. For 2014-2015 the airline’s debt-to-
assets ratio was 0.75, which was the ratio of the previous year as well, which is very
good. If this number is ever greater than one, then it shows that your company survives
more on liabilities in comparison to their assets. Over the majority of Emirates Airlines
history their current ratio has been above 1. This holds truth from 2009-2013 where they
0.94
0.96
0.98
1.00
1.02
1.04
1.06
1.08
1.10
1.12
1.14
Ratio
Years
Current Ratio
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

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fluctuated form 1.12 at their peak to just above 1. Granted they did fluctuate at times
nearly 10 points, still not
going a score of 1 for their
current ratio is very good for
their financials. For the
company’s assets, the vast
majority of their current
assets come from their Net
Property, which is their aircrafts. In 2013, Emirates Airlines majority of their assets
where in Net property, plant & Equipment equaling just over 60%. The airline as a
company invests the majority of their profits back into the airline by purchasing more
property, plant & equipment which in their case in more aircrafts. With The Emirates
Group being a private entity they do not trade publicly on the stock exchange, but based
off their financial statements over the past few years if they were to go public they would
be a company to invest in. Since their stability and past show that as a company they will
have a very prosperous future to come in the airline industry.
37%
60%
3%
2013 Assets Breakdown
Current Assets
Net Property, Plant &
Equipment
Other Assets

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EssayFive 4 points
If you were a strategic consultant presenting the above analysis to the company, what advice
would you offer? Incorporate (and credit) the theories of some of the experts presented in class as
part of your recommendations. Draw fromthe Expert Presentations and/or the Position Papers
to select theories applicable to your analysis.
From an outsiders perspective Emirates Airlines looks like a well-built company
that has all their ducks in a row when it comes to expansion for the future. But, their
current plans are not 100% stable for a future development and growth of the company.
In relation to growing the company, one piece of advice that I would offer comes from
Jim Collin’s Good to Great in Ten Steps, which is to commit to a “20-mile march” that
will bring you to your big hairy audacious goal. With the airline industry being so
competitive it is very easy to take a giant leap during an off-season to try to catch your
competitors by surprise but in reality this is the wrong way to go about growing the
company. By attempting to grow at a drastic rate can lead to the company falling short
and over growing which can lead to understaffing and poor customer service. Therefore
Jim Collins suggests that you “travel the same distance everyday instead of pushing
forward on good days and laying back on the bad.”(Jim) From an outsiders point of view
this approach to expanding your company shows steady continual growth instead of rapid
growth to then plateaus. How Emirates Airlines would use Mr. Collin’s strategy to
growth in a company would be in reference to the airline entering new destination in a
attempt to shy away from the mega-hub. Therefore every quarter or fiscal year the airline
would grow his or her destination map by one destination at a time. This is 100% feasible
and a steady growth that can continue over time.
For their second strategy I decided to look at how the company can better market
themselves against their competitors. For this strategy I looked to the Art of War and the

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excerpt, “it is important to out think your enemy than out fight them.”(Tzu) To often
when competition arises in a business setting the companies go back and fourth wasting
millions on advertising just to show that their company is the best. But, this is simply just
adding to the fire of the competition, when you should be instead out thinking your
competitor by putting that marketing money into more important parts of your company
like bettering customer service or philanthropic efforts. Granted Emirates Airlines would
not be marketing their selves as a better airline, but their efforts outside of the airport will
show that they are a better airline. The best type of marketing out there to date is word of
mouth and by putting your efforts towards bettering your community and employees is
the best indirect marketing you can do. For example, all companies donate money yearly
but never get noticed, but the ones that volunteer their time and serve their community
are always noticed, as Robert Frost said,” and I took the path less traveled and that made
all the difference.” Therefore Emirates Airlines must take the path less traveled and out
think their enemy instead of outfighting them, which in return will make all the
difference.
The last strategy that I would recommend Emirates Airlines would be to accept
change because change is the main constant we have in the world and it is good. I
reached out to Jim Collins again to get some insights to how change is good, and
according to him, “They have successfully adapted over the decades to a changing world
without losing their core values. They have done so by grasping the difference between
timeless principles and daily practices.” The trend with change seems to be changing
your whole company make up to better adapt to the trend when in reality you are hurting
yourself by completing changing your core values. Instead the correct way to deal with

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change is to add something to your core values that helps your company adapt with the
change. How Emirates Airlines can implement this in their airline is by when the market
for Dubai begins to drop in popularity to slowly is to look into creating small micro-hubs
in the new trending locations for the future. One thing that Emirates Airlines did very
well was monopolized the Dubai hub, but like all trends in traveling they come and go
eventually therefore being ready to create micro-hubs in the new destinations will help
the company coop with change. They can even begin to do this process now to sound out
destinations and see what ones stick and then build of that. This will have the airline
prepared for when the change in the market will happen so the company financially will
not take to big of a hit.
When looking at Emirates Airlines their leaders are very knowledgeable along
with in touch with current and future trends in the airline industry. This is why as a
company they have been able earn a profit over the past 27 years while the industry
fluctuated from profit to loss over the past years. Their company is in very good hands
and from a strategy perspective these past three strategies are the only ones that they
could use to only make their company more money down the road.

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Works Cited
Alcacer, Juan, and John Clayton. "Harvard Business School." Harvard Business
School. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
Emirates. "Annual Reports | About Emirates | Emirates United States." Emirates
United States. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
"Jim Collins: Good to Great in 10 Steps." Inc.com. N.p., 07 May 2012. Web. 02
Jan. 2016.
Staff. "Emirates Group Posts Dh5.5bn Annual Profit, 2nd Highest in Its History."
Rss. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
Tzu, Sun. "My Library." Millennium Web Catalog. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.