Emirates mulling new aircraft orders

On 6 June 2023, according to Reuters, Emirates is considering placing orders for additional aircraft. Speaking at journalists at the sidelines of the annual IATA general meeting in Istanbul, the airline's CEO said it may order more A350s, B777Xs or B787s. The new aircraft will be used to cater for the increase in demand and to renew the fleet post 2030. Various news-outlets are reporting that the orders could be for up to 150 aircraft and that they could be placed around this years Dubai Air Show, which is held 13-17 November 2023.

Emirates, which recently announced a record year of profit, is also in talks with the Dubai government to revive the ambitious plans for Dubai-World Central Airport so that the airline will be able to continue to grow and move its operations to the new airport. Emirates hopes to see the project completed by 2033-2034.

Dubai-World Central Airport was opened in June 2010 but is nowadays an airport with limited passenger-flights and mainly in use as a cargo airport. Yearly, it handles around 5 million passengers. Originally, it was planned to handle up to 120 million passengers in 2017 but the global financial crisis put a temporary stop to the project. Eventually, DWC has the room to grow to 260 million passengers per year.

Emirates currently has open orders with Airbus and Boeing for fifty A350-900s, five B777Fs, 115 B777Xs, and thirty B787-9s. Today, it operates 119 A380s, ten B777-200LRs, eleven B777Fs, and 123 B777-300ERs.

Illustration by Boeing.