Birinci from Emirates-Area manager par excellence

Dubai-based Emirates airline has also been affected and regional manager Bahar Ahmet Birinci told the Hurriyet Daily News, "Emirates airline is used to this and we had already taken our precautions almost a year ago on cost-saving issues which puts us still in a good shape financially.

"The drop in the fuel prices lately has enabled us to reflect this in our airfares, unavoidable during this economic crisis to get people to travel and travel with us. Therefore as Emirates we have introduced very special airfares from Turkey starting from 224 Euros to cover almost all our network.

"Regionally, the Gulf area was not affected at all by past economic crises. But it is not the situation right now due to the massive investments in the region in recent years that meant many bank credits and loans. So the speed of growth has had to be reorganized in the Gulf as well."

Emirates hasn’t even reached its 25th anniversary but the Dubai- based airline has achieved a superb reputation for quality, an attribute that it has emphasized ever since it started flying in 1985 with two rented airplanes. Since then it has grown immensely.

Emirates has a fleet of 113 aircraft and currently flies to over 100 destinations in 62 countries around the world. Nearly 800 Emirates flights depart Dubai each week on their way to destinations on six continents. Emirates flights account for nearly 40 percent of all flight movement in and out of Dubai International Airport. The airline’s aim is to increase its market share to 70 percent by 2010 without compromising its reputation for quality.

But there are questions about rivalry and new low-cost airline companies springing up around the Gulf region. Established in 1985, Emirates Airline is one of the top innovative airlines, according to Birinci, who is convinced that it will always be in the lead. It has now established its own low cost carrier, Fly Dubai.

"Emirates has put its signature on many ’first’ occasions for the airline industry," Birinci said. "One of the most important is the personal entertainment system on all seats that provides up to 1,000 channels of entertainment, communication and information. Surveys among world travelers show that 60 percent choose their airline according to its entertainment system and yet another 62 percent say they watch TV when they are flying. Emirates set a trend in this respect. Also a cabin crew featuring 110 nationalities gives passengers a good chance of communicating in their own language, including Turkish."

Becoming an area manager

Birinci was appointed Emirates’ area manager for Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria in 1993 and was the first and only woman manager. Looking back at the occasion, she said, "Interestingly, doing this, company executives were also excited about it. I remember that the news about my appointment and my photo were in the Gulf’s regional papers and also on a bulletin board at Dubai International Airport.

"When I got this job I had worked only five years in the industry but because my colleagues liked me, it was a great pleasure for them, too. For two weeks congratulatory flowers kept coming. The women of the industry especially were very proud of the situation."

Only two years later, the Turkey team won the best station award in the Emirates network. Subsequently Emirates appointed three other women area managers, while in Turkey, appointing Turkish women to be airline managers became more frequent.

"I think what brings a person respect, be it men or women, is commitment, fairness, hard work, knowledge and knowing how to use it, and persistence," Birinci said when she was asked about the challenges of being a woman and a Middle Eastern airline’s area manager. "Frankly I cannot say that I faced any challenges in my business life as a woman. I feel sexless in business life. And I believe women can climb the career ladder with less competition because men do not see them as competitors like they see other men."

Although she is working for Emirates, long ago she had had the feeling that she wanted to change her life. "I had been working as an export and international specialist for 14 years and I had a very good career in this field in big companies like Volvo Penta, Otomarsan (today's Mercedes-Benz Turk A.S.) and Ram Dis Ticaret. However I wanted to do something different in the next phase of my life.

"The airline idea was triggered by my love for movies. In those years [the beginning of the 1980s] Turkey had no foreign movies and we all relied on Video Rental Clubs. I would rent 10 movies each week and watch two films a night. Of course the TV channels were also scarce and there were no private TV channels such as we have today. A colleague’s wife was working at Istanbul Pan Am. They were also addicted to movies. So one weekend every month they would use their free tickets to go to Paris and watch movies. I always used to joke with my friend to ask his wife to find a job for me at Pan Am too, so I could do the same. After a few years when I seriously decided for a change, I saw a job advertised by British Airways for a Sales Executive. I applied and was chosen as their single candidate with no airline experience. But the recruiters had seen the excitement. So my airline career was launched. Using my past experience I have introduced new ways to the old game and brought quite some excitement to the market."

Three years on, Birinci was asked to go to Paris to look at the Emirates operation and look after the office there and the one in Istanbul. She spent six months doing this although she didn’t know any French and had never been to France before. The French team wanted her to stay, she said. "Although I had made them work much harder than they had ever worked. But when you teach people what you know, most of them appreciate that and will accept the hard work."

Ask her what she finds satisfying about her job and she says, "It is exciting. Diverse, involves lots of travel, constant change and on toes all the time so it is never boring. Except for the usual bureaucracy that can be found in any big international companies, I can't complain about anything else. If one day I don't like it any longer or find something more exciting, then naturally I naturally should go."

Bahar Ahmet Birinci

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Bahar Ahmet Birinci can be described as enthusiastic, inquisitive, persuasive, loving, friendly and happy. Certainly these are the very adjectives she uses in describing herself and this is how she describes herself, her life and her family.

"When I was growing up, I had no ambition to be ’something.’ I always enjoyed the moment to the full extent. There were things that I wanted to do in my life for which I did not make big plans but always worked toward them. But I chose to plan for the next step when I came to that bridge and to the correct time. However, one thing that I always had in mind as a goal when I was growing up was to travel the world. In a job like this it is hard to have spare time if one does not really try and discipline oneself. I write essays on different occasions, feelings and everyday life that are not hard to find if you really look and feel even on a single day out. The other is photography. But at the moment, all these have to be squeezed around other activities and at high speed. I have even taken singing lessons (classical, opera) for three and a half years but just for self-amusement and joy. I wish I could continue one day with lessons in jazz singing. I love dancing but it is a pity that there are no real dance halls in this city like there used to be in our younger days. I have an obsession with books and reading and all of my life I have been buying more books than I can ever read. "When I am traveling I love to spend time in bookshops and music stores. For me, one of the best part of traveling, going to a hairdresser or having to wait in airports, is that I can read without interruption. I have traveled a lot to many places around the world. The destination that I most frequently travel to is India. But it is again not important where you go but it is how you go. In recent years due to time limitations, my trips have had to become very organized. I know the in and out dates, my transportation and all hotels are arranged. Actually my "future dream trip" is to travel the world at the pace that I chose and not have to decide how long I will stay in one place or where to go next. I have always longed to travel on a container ship. I am aiming to bring part of this dream to life by passing South America from Tierra Del Fuego to the north over two or three months, as soon as I can. I believe what we are taught in the family and in the early years of our education is very important in how to lead and form our lives along with our genes.

"I was lucky to study as a boarding student at the American College for Girls in Istanbul from where I learned most of the things in life to create a different vision. To study Ethics, Psychology, even Home Economics at an early age and with serious tutoring impacts your future.

"Somewhere along the line in our lives we came to know that reading all works of Shakespeare and the Ulysses of James Joyce during high school years makes it easier to understand life and people. I was married at a young age after falling in love and became a very young mother. Many people think that without living your life to the full, a young child may be an obstacle and can prevent you from living as you want. I don’t think so. My first and only husband for 35 years is a general surgeon and runs his own clinic.

"My husband, an artist like many other people with a medical career, submerged himself in music some years ago and had an album of his own. It was a fact that our son had a band and played the sax and was the lead vocal of his band when he was studying but playing in places like Hayal Kahvesi on the weekends Ğ however when it came to the stage that my husband, then in his late forties, had to sing with his band at late nights along with practicing medicine during the days; he had to let it go.

"We have a lovely granddaughter Maya who is almost 2 years old who calls me Babi and I can die for her. Our dog Simba has been with us for 14 years of our journey together.

"We have strong family ties with our families, brothers, sisters and their children; even with friends, which is a very important value in one's life. Without this connection, one cannot learn to love others and themselves."