Just a month after ordering 32 additional A380s, Emirates is adding at least 30 more 777s to its fleet.
Fast-growing Emirates Airline of Dubai will announce Monday it is ordering over 30 Boeing 777 jets, a month after it ordered 32 A380 superjumbo jetliners, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The catalog value of the latest transaction is estimated at more than seven billion dollars, the Journal said, citing a person familiar with the transaction. It said the order would be announced at the Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire, England…
60+ large aircraft is quite a bit for an airline, even an aspiring industry leader like EK. I can’t help but to think they may be biting off more then they can chew. I’ll be watching the official news release and press conference (rumored to be tomorrow), for details about their route expansion plans.
It’s interesting to watch other countries like England limit the capacity of LHR and LGW. Seriously, 2 runways at LHR and 1 at LGW are going to help link England into the ever expanding global economy? Frankfurt, JFK, EWR, NRT, HND, and PEK, suffer a similar lack of capacity. As other airlines raise fares ever higher since they can literally not carry lower fare traffic in volume (even though this represents decent yield in the mid to lower mid levels,) Emirates is expanding into the this wide open market other carriers and countries don’t have the supply to serve. Even India is trying to stall the arrival of the A380 to “protect” their local carriers. This strategy, assuming markets do eventually open up regardless, will lead to local carriers getting crushed by Emirates, and Emirates being able to fill the many widebody aircraft they have ordered.
Looks like part of this will be fleet replacement of the older 777-200/200ER/300s. Yes, they’re relatively new, but this is Emirates after all.