Emirates Announces New Regional Senior Management Appointment

Orhan Abbas, Emirates Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Latin America, Central and Southern Africa

Orhan Abbas, whose career spans 15 years within commercial roles at Emirates, has been appointed Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Latin America, Central and Southern Africa.

Orhan, a U.A.E national, joined Emirates as a management trainee in 1998, and has since held various management and leadership positions both within and outside of the U.A.E.

After completing his management training, he was appointed Country Manager of Tanzania in 2001 and just over two years later moved to manage Emirates commerical operations in Iran.

From August 2005 to July 2007, he was based in South Africa where he was responsible for the Southern Africa region, and thereafter moved to Mumbai where he spent five years as Vice-president for India and Nepal. In August last year he was promoted to Senior Vice President for the Americas region, based in Dubai.

In his new role he will oversee a number of markets, incuding South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, the Indian Ocean islands Mauritius and Seychelles, and Latin American markets Brazil and Argentina.

Commenting on his new appointment, Orhan said, “I’m very familiar with these markets. Latin America, Central and Southern Africa, are exciting and diverse regions that are enjoying good economic growth. My focus will be to leverage this growth as much as possible and futher increase our presence in these markets and make Emirates the airline of choice for travellers”.

Orhan holds a degree in Business Administration from Regents College in Albany in New York.