May 6th, 1985
Director of the region of the Near and Middle East, based in Paris, I am in Dubai making a tour of the Gulf States. Paul Khalife, our representative and director for the United Arab Emirates suggests a meeting for me with Mohamed Ben Rashid Al Maktoum, the Minister of Civil Aviation and President of the airport at Dubai.
We exchange thoughts on the development of the region, particularly concerning The UAE and Dubai specifically, and also concerning the projects of SITA. The Sheik expresses the hope that SITA make Dubai its primary center for the Gulf States (which was then Bahrain and Jeddah).
He also tells us that he is not satisfied with the developments and priorities of Gulf Air, for which the hub was Bahrain, the decision had been made by the Emir of Dubai, his brother, to launch new airline company, named Emirates, and of which he is president; he adds that a director general has just been named, Maurice Flanagan, formerly of BOAC, and director of DNATA, (Dubaï Airport operator) who took his position the next day, and invited us to meet with him as soon as possible.
The next day Maurice Flanagan received us and made clear that we were his first visitors; he told us that his mission was to make Emirates into the Singapore Airlines of the Middle East! I found, without so, that this vision is somewhere between highly ambitious and beyond possible. He added that his immediate priorities were to find aircraft and crews and traffic rights…. as well as all the logistical services necessary to operate this newly created company, including the telecommunications and data proccessing services. SITA was an obvious and natural supplier in the view of some. In the following weeks Emirates became a member of SITA, and contracts were either concluded or under discussion.
From the beginning Maurice Flanagan disposed of a treasury of 10 million dollars. The first flight of Emirates Airlines was to and from Karachi in October of the same year, 1985….and in 30 years this company has become a world leader and a standard for air transport. The initial objectives were surpassed!
Maurice Flanagan retired in 2013. He died May 7, 2015, thirty years to the day from our initial meeting, and the same day that the Emirates announced record results for the year 2014.
