Team NZ perfect fit for rising airline

By CHRIS DANIELS, aviation writer

In London, Melbourne, Sydney and Pakistan, the words "Fly Emirates" are in your face.

They are everywhere and now Emirates is bankrolling one of our most expensive sporting ventures, the challenge for the America's Cup.

Richard Vaughan, Emirates' senior vice-president of commercial operations for East Asia and Australasia, told the Herald that sponsorship - particularly of local sporting events - was an important part of Emirates' promotion in its new destinations.

The airline sponsors the Melbourne Cup, Collingwood Australian Rules Football team and Chelsea soccer team in England and has its name on the back of every international cricket umpire.

Sponsoring the Team New Zealand challenge for the America's Cup makes sense for the airline - it will provide media exposure in Europe and support for a team from one of its newest destinations.

It might seem strange for a Middle Eastern airline to sponsor a New Zealand team taking part in a sailing competition in Europe, but Air New Zealand is not the only airline that wants to fly European tourists to this part of the world.

Emirates wants to fly them to Australia, New Zealand, Asia and pretty much everywhere else.

Sponsorship also helps build a local image - New Zealand yachtsmen on the Hauraki Gulf are a world away from the parched deserts of the Arabian Peninsula.

One of the pet hates of Emirates is the whispered comments from rival airlines that it is bankrolled by fat-cat oil sheikhs, able to burn off rivals with its deep pockets.

Not true, it says, pointing to a subsidy of only US$50 million ($79.7 million) over the airline's history.

It does not pay tax, but then no company in Dubai pays tax. Dubai has open skies, meaning any airline can come and go as it pleases.

But Emirates does have many advantages other airlines do not. It is owned by the al Maktoum family, rulers of the emirate of Dubai. Companies and interests controlled by the al Maktoum family build the hotels, tourism operations and promote Dubai as a commercial and trading hub. All of which brings millions of tourists and business travellers to Dubai every year.

Figures ranking the world's airlines by revenue passenger kilometres flown put Emirates at number 20.

With nine new destinations added to its schedules in less than a year, the airline is likely to make the top 10 probably about the same time a certain Emirates Team New Zealand boat takes to the water in 2007.

Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/americascup