1 of 5 | Luxury carrier Emirates Monday exercised options that will see the airline acquire an additional 95 wide-body planes from Boeing to augment its fleet. Photo courtesy of Emirates
Luxury carrier Emirates Monday exercised options that will see the airline acquire an additional 95 wide-body planes from Boeing to augment its fleet.
The United Arab Emirates flag carrier confirmed the $52 billion order on the first day of the Dubai Airshow. Advertisement
The airline will acquire a further 55 Boeing 777-9 passenger jets and 35 of the 777-8 variant of the next-generation wide-body plane collectively known as the 777X.
The Dubai-headquartered carrier also increased its order for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner jet by five additional aircraft. The airline has a total of 35 of the fuel-efficient Dreamliners on order, with deliveries expected to start midway through 2025.
“The new Boeing 777X will be the world’s largest and most efficient twin-engine jet, unmatched in every aspect of performance. With new breakthroughs in aerodynamics and engines, the 777X will deliver 10% lower fuel use and emissions and 10% lower operating costs than the competition,” is how Boeing describes the plane on its website.
Emirates currently operates 150 older variants of the twin-aisle Boeing 777s in its growing fleet and is in the process of retrofitting those aircraft. It is retrofitting more than 30 of those planes. Advertisement
The 777-9 can be configured to carry up to 426 passengers in a typical two-class configuration, with a range of 7,295 nautical miles.
The longer-range 777-8 seats 395 passengers and can fly up to 8,745 nautical miles.
The airline now has a total of 205 aircraft on order from Boeing’s passenger aviation division. It first announced an initial $9 billion order with Boeing in 2019, containing options to increase the number of aircraft.
“This order is an incredible vote of confidence in Boeing’s highly efficient widebody family and the versatility of our 777X and 787 airplanes to meet Emirates’ needs for global long-haul travel,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal said in a news release issued by the aviation giant.
“The 777-9 and 777-8 are the perfect airplanes to support Emirates’ growth, improving environmental performance and unmatched payload capability along the way.”
Emirates is growing its fleet in an effort to add an additional 400 cities to Dubai’s foreign trade map over the next decade.
“Emirates is the biggest operator of Boeing 777 aircraft, and today’s order cements that position. We’ve been closely involved in the 777 program since its start up until this latest generation of 777X aircraft,” UAE Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed said in a news release issued by the airline. Advertisement
“The 777 has been central to Emirates’ fleet and network strategy of connecting cities on all continents non-stop to Dubai. We are pleased to extend our relationship with Boeing and look forward to the first 777-9 joining our fleet in 2025.”
Emirates also operates the Airbus A380 as part of its fleet of wide-body planes, serving over 140 cities on six continents. The company also has over $10 billion worth of aircraft orders with France-based Airbus.
