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A SUCCESS STORY: THE CREATION OF A NEW MARKET
Emirates began flying in 1985, leasing two aircrafts only two months and a half after it was founded. In the 24 years since its foundation, the company, which does not receive any state funding in spite of being the official airline of the United Arab Emirates, has achieved profit every year, except for 1986, thanks to its management focused management and its flexible business concept. Emirates now has a fleet of 137 aircraft and over 48,000 employees. The company also has a very extensive flight network, with 100 destinations in 61 countries. Emirates, which flies from a single spot in Turkey, from Istanbul to Dubai, began with two flights a week and a capacity of 200 seats; it has now reached 11 flights and a capacity of 5,000 seats. Bahar Ahmet Birinci, who was been Manager for Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria for 16 years, is among the few people who experienced this process in person and almost in its entirety. Before moving to the field of aviation, Birinci, who began her working life in the field of export, worked for 15 years in companies such as Volvo Penta, Otomarsan (the present Mercedes-Benz Türk) and Ram Foreign Trade, specializing in the field of export. Birinci, who loved travelling, decided to bring about a change in her life. Her move to the aviation sector and her subsequent journey all the way to Emirates happened as follows: “I heard that an airline company with one of the most extensive networks in the world was looking for a sales representative and I applied. The Turkey section of the company was headed by a newly appointed British manager. Although I did not have any experience in this field, I think it was because of my enthusiasm that he believed that I would be suitable for this post; in spite of all the experienced people who had also applied for it. This was a difficult period when the company had only recently been privatized. I worked there for five years and I played a role in the re-establishment of its sales and marketing team in Turkey. In 1993 Emirates advertised for a country director. As I had experience of only five years in this sector, I did not think that it would be right to apply for this job. But then a friend of mine who worked in the tourism sector prompted me, so I found the courage to apply and I became the first female country director in the history of Emirates.” How has Dubai become a brand in Turkey? Rising from two flights a week to 11 flights and from a capacity of 200 to 5,000 seats represents great success. But this success was not achieved easily, for it required great effort. This is where Birinci’s foreign trade vision played an important role. Seeing that a market needed to be developed in order to increase passenger numbers, she thought that they would not be able to achieve this by taking the share of others in the current market and decided to create a new market. That is how Dubai was born as Birinci’s “blue ocean.”
Birinci, who says that then, as now, she acted not only as the manager of an airline company but as the manager of any company operating in the field of international trade, explains as follows the process the company underwent: “Our product was not a ticket, it was Dubai itself. There are two ways to sell Dubai: either via “trade” or via “tourism.” I gave priority to trade. No one was aware of the business potential of the region. I went to the Dubai chamber of commerce and obtained some information. Then I went to the Export Promotion Center (IGEME) in Ankara and obtained some information there as well. I looked into what it is that we can sell to Dubai, what it is that we produce, that can be sold to Dubai. That is to say, I focused on increasing the trade volume between Turkey and Dubai, in order to sell plane tickets. I organized many meetings in my office, between buyers from Dubai and Turkish exporters. I had booklets on “How to do business with Dubai” distributed to exporters. As a result of these moves we increased our yearly number of passengers by 400 percent. And we immediately organized our third and fourth flights. But of course not everybody was flying with us. We were aware that when we endeavored to increase the market we increased it for everybody, but it was all in the interest of Turkey. And the flights were always full.” Birinci, who achieved great success by playing an important role in increasing trade volume between Turkey and Dubai, then set her sights on tourism. Having established that during the winter people do not only go skiing but they also enjoy going swimming in warm regions such as Miami, the Caribbean and the Maldives, Bahar Ahmet Birinci, decided to use another method to sell Dubai. The first slogan used to promote Dubai as a winter destination was, “Are you cold? Dubai is only four hours away.” Although it took some time, this slogan hit its target and when tourism agencies understood that they could not ignore their clients’ demands, they began their tours to Dubai. When we ask, “We too are a tourism country. What are the numbers of tourists coming from Dubai to Turkey?” Birinci says the following: “We had Arab tourists coming to Turkey in the 1980s, but unfortunately we lost them in the 1990s. But after September 11th, Arab tourists who previously preferred the US or the UK began to feel more at ease in Turkey. Moreover, TV series much in demand over there too, such as ‘Gümüþ,” “Ihlamurlar Altýnda” and “Asi,” have resulted in a significant increase in interest in Turkey. For example, some of the tourists that come from Dubai pay 50 Euros to visit the building where ‘Gümüþ’ is shot.
An approach based on profitability About TAV Airports, operators of the Atatürk Airport, Birinci says: “It is very important that an airport should be operated by a private company. From this point of view TAV offers service of a very high quality. We also very much appreciate TAV’s enterprises abroad. Whenever we need to make a criticism, if we inform the right person it’s always taken into consideration. We therefore have very good relations with all companies affiliated with TAV Airports.” When asked about future plans, Birinci also says that they are not thinking of establishing a new destination in Turkey as of yet, but that such plans can only be determined by the further development of relations between Turkey and Dubai. She emphasizes the fact that 70% of trade is still based in Istanbul and that this plays an important role in these plans.
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