The New Nation - Internet Edition

BUSINESS REPORT

Team Bangladesh of Emirates led by Area Manager Hanif Zakaria won a special award at the Emirates Chairman's Award for Sales Excellence Distribution ceremony in Dubai.

"2006-07 was very tough for one particular country which is why this year, we are presenting a special award for the outstanding Bangladesh team, headed by Hanif Zakaria, Manager Bangladesh," said Nigel Page, Chairman of the Chairman's Award and SVP Commercial Operations The Americas, while presenting the awards.

The event was organised in Dubai to recognise the contributions of sales teams and individuals across the network.

"The standard across the network was incredibly high and the individual presentations were outstanding", said Nigel Page.

The winners of the Chairman's Award for Sales Excellence 2005-06 were also recognised at the ceremony.

"We are humbled at this recognition of our hard work. The credit goes to Team Bangladesh. I would like to express our gratitude to our valued passengers who made Emirates their airline of choice," said Hanif Zakaria.

Emirates has been serving Bangladesh since 1986, and at present operates double daily to Dhaka.

Emirates is the world's third most profitable and among the 20 largest international airlines and one of the fastest-growing. It is based in Dubai, one of the few cities in the world that pursues an open-skies policy, with more than 130 airlines in free and fair competition.

The airline has experienced rapid and consistent growth, above 20 per cent a year on average and has been profitable for the last 20 consecutive years. Financially self-sustained and unprotected, Emirates carried 21.2 million passengers in the 2007-08 financial year-almost four million more than the year before-and declared a record net profit of Dhs 5.3 billion (US$ 1.4 billion). Total group revenue was an impressive Dhs 41.2 billion (US$ 11.2 billion).

Its 116 all wide-bodied fleet includes 10 freighters and is among the youngest in the skies, with an average age of 67 months. The airline plans to more than double its size by 2012.