HISTORY

The airline was established on May 25, 1985 by the Dubai government and was supported by the founder of the German airline Germania, Hinrich Bischoff, in its beginning.^{[citation needed]} It started operations with flights to Karachi and Mumbai followed by Delhi in September. Two Airbus A300 and Boeing 737-300 were leased from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). Subsequently two Boeing 727-200 Advanced were acquired from the UAE's Royal Flight. These aircraft were used until Emirates began taking delivery of a fleet of newly built Airbus A300-600R and Airbus A310-300 wide-body aircraft.

The first European destination to be added in July 1987 was London Gatwick and Far Eastern operations commenced to Singapore in June 1990. Emirates acquired a financial stake of 43.6%^[9] and a management contract for Air Lanka on 1 April 1998, which subsequently changed its name to SriLankan Airlines. In January 2008, Emirates announced that it will pass the management of SriLankan Airlines to the Sri Lankan government in April 2008.^[9][10] There are no plans to remove or decrease the stake in the airline.^[9]

Emirates received the airline of the year award for the first time in 2001 and repeated the feat in 2002. Emirates Airline is wholly owned by the Government of Dubai and has 20,273 employees.