Emirates says it is now employing more than 5000 Australians which would give it 3rd place as an airline group in terms of jobs for the country’s pilots, engineers, cabin attendants, systems managers and other positions within the airline and its controlled entities.

The claim is made in a media release linking the jobs number to its expansion of its services to Adelaide on 1 November, which says:

Nationally, Emirates Airline & Group employs more than 3500 Australians, while more than 1200 operate out of its Dubai hub. These workers fill roles across a wide range of areas and industries, including Emirates Airline, Emirates SkyCargo, the Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa, Toll DNATA, Alpha, Mindpearl and Emirates Leisure Retail.

Qantas says its total payroll is 35,700, with 95% of those positions located in Australia.

Virgin Australia said that as of 30 June last year its activities employed 6159 people, almost all of whom are nationally based.

While the statistics and scope of activities might be argued, with the Qantas group also including travel retailing and Virgin Australia, like Qantas, moving into brokering third party services like restaurant, entertainment, sporting events and accommodation booking based on their loyalty programs and membership data and profiles, Emirates Group Australian domiciled employee numbers have now reached almost 10% of the size of the total Qantas work force.

Media statements like this don’t just come out of the blue.

There is always a strategic reason for them.

In the case of Emirates it could be to counter the anti-Emirates lobbying that has been undertaken of late by Qantas in Canberra, after a closer linkage between Emirates and Qantas failed to materialise.

Or, it could be taking place to to raise public awareness of Emirates’ contribution to the Australian economy by bringing leisure and business travellers into this country from places Qantas would struggle to find on a map of the world, perhaps in advance of a further ‘development’.

Time will tell.