SWOT Analysis Strengths: One of the largest airlines in the world: Emirates considered one of the well-known airlines

in the world in term of revenue, fleet size, and passengers carried. Also, it has very fast growth; growth has never fallen below 20% a year. In its first 11 years, it doubled in size every 3.5 years. They are good in managing crises: Emirates Airline was one of very few airlines in the industry that survived from many global crises and still profitable, such as, 11 September attack, and the economic recession in 2008/2009. High quality of service: Emirates is superior in quality of service provided to customer and win the "Airline of the Year" The Sophisticated Dubai: The huge growth of Dubai infrastructure and facilities. The Dubai Airport and the new airport in Jebel Ali are considered from largest airports in the world. Also, Dubai considered one of the important commercial cities in the region. Dubai is very attractive for tourisms, and also it hosts many international sport events and international conferences. They are good in communicating, learning, and developing the staff: They communicate vision, value, and strategic plan to first line staff and emphasis cost control with them. Also, they are providing a periodic training and development of their staff. Diversity of the senior management style and the multi-nationality staff: Managements are different people from different places bringing a wealth of experience; it's the combination of the best of each cultural style. Emirates consist of more than 80 nationalities, it's multicultural environment working together as a family. Flexibility and fast decisions making: Managements are working in very informal basis. It's not the traditional model of the western world, it's much more fluid. They have small managements team and get a decisions very quickly. Youngest fleet in the industry: Emirates Airline operates one of the youngest fleets in the industry with an average age of 65.89 months, compared with an industry average of 156 months. High operations efficiency relative to others measured by trip length: Analysts estimated that Emirates longer trip length of nearly 4,000 kilometers per average trip in 2003provided operating efficiency relative to flag carriers such as British airways. Air France and Lufthansa with average trip lengths in the range of 2,000 to 3,000 kilometers. Strategic location: When we look at the Middle East, Emirates is placed at the middle of a market with four billion people: China, India, South-East Asia, the Russian Federation, and Europe. Attractiveness of Emirates environment: Employees were attracted not only by Emirates reputation as an employer of choice, but also by the competitive salaries, the lifestyle offered and the absence of income tax for

Dubai residents. Unlike other airlines, Emirates was not saddled with legacy systems or archaic legacy trade union agreements; it relied on robust HR systems to redress staff concerns. Strong branding strategy: Emirates branding strategy is key to its international growth. The airline spent approximately $300 million per year on sponsorships, promotions, events and media relations. One half of this investment was spent on advertising in the six continents where the airline flew and 40% was allocated to sports sponsorships. Weakness: No formal succession plan: Emirates Airline does not have a formal succession plan for its senior managements. Lack of UAE nationality: UAE National recruitment is a big challenge. More opportunities were offered to UAE National, only about 5% of the staff are UAE Nationals. On the other hand, at the manager level the percentage of UAE nationals is about 25%. Dis-economic of scale: Emirates management worried reaching a point where the airline could start to face diseconomies of scale. Emirates getting complex and expenditures start increasing.

Threats: High competitive regional and international market. In October 2003, the first low-cost carrier in the Middle East, Air Arabia started to operate from Sharjah, UAE. Then Etihad Airways from Abu Dhabi started as aggressive competitor to Emirates. Also, Emirates faced regional competition from Qatar Airline which is considered one of the best airlines in the world and with very aggressive growth. Furthermore, Emirates faced competitor from other international carrier like Lufthansa and British Airways Airlines industry is highly affected by the economic crises: Airlines industry is very sensitive to economic crises, many suffering huge loss or bankruptcy. As we seen Emirates recorded significant decline in profit during 2008/2009 recession. Oil prices: Fluctuation on oil prices is highly affecting the cost of operations, because oil cost considered the second large component of operations cost. Fluctuation of demand and inability to forecast: Fluctuation in consumers demand affect the ability of future expected demand while Emirates made huge investment in the aircrafts. Opportunities: Development of more advanced airline services: To develop continuously new generations of more advanced airline and aviation services, and in result tap into more markets. Leveraging Emirates Airlines infrastructure business to get first choice. Opportunity to tap budget travelers' market.

Building global hub-and-spoke system:

Passengers able to fly from any major city in the world to any large destination through Dubai.
Problem definition: There are many challenges faced by Emirates. Below is the list of challenges sorted by priority: 1. Managing the huge growth of Emirates Airline while maintaining profitability, high service quality, and the family atmosphere for employees with high productivity per employee . 2. Diseconomies of scale, Emirates getting complex and expenditures start increasing. 3. Improving productivity, and deployment of measurement system. 4. Challenges in terms of increasing the number of UAE nationals in the company.