Emirates was formed on October 25 1985 when the Government of Dubai provided $10 Million in initial start up capital for the carrier via the Investment Corporation of Dubai. The airline remains Government owned and has been self-financing since the initial investment.
Initially the airline operated just two aircraft, a Boeing 737-300 and an Airbus A300, both of which were leased from Pakistan International Airlines. Later that year a Boeing 727-200 was leased from the Dubai Air Wing to provide additional capacity.
was from Dubai to Karachi, followed by Mumbai and Delhi and 260,000 passengers were carried in the first year. In 1986 further flights were added to Amman, Cairo, Colombo and Dhaka.
Although the Boeing 737 returned to Pakistan International Airlines in 1986 further narrowbody capacity was added in 1987 when a second Boeing 727 was purchased from the Dubai Government.
The A300 was temporarily replaced by a second example from Kuwait Airlines but reinforcements arrived in 1987 in the form of two new build Airbus A310s. The airline’s first route to Europe commenced on 6 July 1987 when it commenced non stop flights to London Gatwick and a Dubai - Istanbul - Frankfurt operation. Male in the Maldives also joined the network in 1987.
The airline began to push towards Asia in 1989 with services launched to Bangkok, Manila and Singapore.
In it’s first ten years the airline expanded the fleet to six Airbus A300s and eight Airbus A310s and built the network up to cover 37 destinations in 30 countries. At this time it was the sixth largest airline in the Middle East.
In 1992 Emirates launched personal TVs at all seats with First Class passengers being provided with individual video players. All aircraft in the fleet were so equipped by 1993.
The airline’s love affair with the Boeing 777 commenced in 1996 when the first of three “A” market 777-200s arrived. These were followed shortly afterwards by six Boeing 777-200ERs. Emirates were the first airline in the world to introduce ten abreast seating in Economy on the 777 using a 3-4-3 configuration instead of the more normal nine abreast 3-3-3 or 2-5-2 configurations used by other carriers. The 777s incorporated a new innovation with forward and downward facing cameras providing video footage which could be viewed via the in flight entertainment system. The arrival of the 777 allowed Emirates to continue its Singapore service onwards to Melbourne commencing in 1996.
In 1998 Emirates made its first and only foray into making investments in other airlines taking a 43.6% stake in Sri Lankan Airlines for $70 Million. This deal included a 10 year contract for Emirates to manage Sri Lankan. This shareholding was sold back to the Sri Lankan Government in 2010 for around $150 Million.
1998 also saw Emirates Sky Cargo launched. Although the company had always provided a cargo service using capacity within its passenger aircraft this was now expanded with an Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance lease agreed with Atlas Air initially for a single Boeing 747-200 freighter.