Anita Thomas (Country Manager for Emirates) and Filippo Rocchi (recently appointed Sales Manager for Emirates) hosted an intimate media event at the luxurious 25 Fitzwilliam Place in the city centre.
Media attendees were warmly welcomed with champagne to start while allowing time for guests to catch up with the hosts.
In an interview with ITTN’s Shane Cullen, Filippo Rocchi shared insights into the revitalization of the Emirates team post-pandemic, emphasizing recent hires and the imminent addition of a new member to the sales team who will be hitting the road to engage and interact with members of the trade across the country.
On his own new appointment as Sales Manager for Ireland, Filippo said “It has been a long time running and quite challenging but I am absolutely delighted.” This delight stems from his promotion and, he emphasises, the strong performance year-to-date by the airline.
Anita Thomas added “2024 has had a stronger forward base load than ’23 had. 2023 had a huge amount of last-minute bookings. 2023 was slower to come in, apart from the peak periods – whereas this year we are seeing a greater base. People are definitely prioritizing holidays and they are doing so earlier in the year”.
The duo’s optimism and enthusiasm echoed throughout the event, painting a promising picture for Emirates in the evolving travel landscape.
Strong 2023 for Dublin-Dubai Route
Emirates carried more than 450,000 passengers on its popular Dublin-Dubai route during 2023, marking one of its most successful years operating out of Ireland. In fact, Emirates named Australia as its top international destination from Ireland, as thousands of passengers headed down under for holidays, one- and two-year work visas and to visit family and friends last year. In addition, Dubai is proving popular as a sun holiday destination for Irish travellers.
Lounge About in Style
At the event the lucky attendees received the new inflight loungewear set for Business Class customers. Launched at the start of February, Emirates’ Business Class Loungewear is super soft premium material, which is both lightweight and breathable. The luxurious loungewear is designed to be the ideal ‘flight fit’ – perfect for sleeping in, but also suitable to wear for a social drink at the A380 onboard lounge, or as a casual outfit that takes you from aircraft to arrivals in style.
High-End & High Flying
The launch of Business Class Loungewear forms part of Emirates’ ongoing investment into elevating customer experience, ensuring customers in all classes ‘fly better’. Recent investments have included a huge retrofit project of 120 aircraft with upgraded cabin interiors, creative new menus and new high-quality ingredients, exclusive champagne partnerships, a new hospitality programme for Emirates cabin crew, live TV onboard amidst a vast library of inflight entertainment, complimentary Wi-Fi attainable for all customers, luxurious amenity kits and a world-class wine list. During the trial period on routes to and from New York and Boston, customers shared highly positive feedback on the loungewear, with sets being taken home by customers to be worn again. And no, I won’t be modelling it (no one wants to see that, except maybe my wife though she’d probably want the outfit for herself).
