Emirates Airline, world’s largest operator of both the Airbus A380 and Boeing 777, has been getting its fleet orders ready for the post-A380 era, and the future looks like a continued mix of the two makers’ planes.
At the Dubai Air Show, the airline made big waves with an order for 50 A350s from Airbus, leading to speculation about what would happen to its previous plans to add a raft of Boeing 787-10s. Emirates also has orders on the book for 126 of the not-yet-in-service 777x series.
The answer turned out to be that the 787 is still in play, with the airline firming up orders for 30 787s, but opted for the -9 instead of the -10. The mix of planes, Emirates says, best helps them match planes to routes for different capacity and range requirements; those will be major factors in possibly swapping among different models for other parts of the order.
Separately, Reuters says Boeing and Emirates have had serious discussions about the delays in the 777x program; Emirates President Tim Clark has told reporters that he wants the plane “to go through hell on Earth” before it’s delivered, in light of the issues that developed with the 737 MAX.
