Emirates will deploy A350 jets to ultra-long-haul destinations in second Phase, executive says
Emirates plans to use its new Airbus A350 jets to serve ultralong-haul destinations in the US, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand following the initial roll-out of the wide-body jets on mainly regional routes.
The first batch of aircraft will be delivered between August this year and mid-2025. They will be deployed on short-tomedium-haul routes in the Middle East, Gulf, East Asia and Europe. Each plane will have a capacity of 312 seats.
The A350 aircraft in the second phase of deliveries will be deployed on existing “midsized” markets, with ultra-long-haul range such as Adelaide in Australia, Adnan Kazim, deputy president and chief commercial officer of Emirates, told The National.
The move will replace the bigger Boeing 777s and Airbus A380s currently on these routes, freeing them up to serve demand on destinations that require larger capacity. The A350 has the right size and range to meet demand on those routes, the executive said.
The A350 jets’ fuel efficiency and capacity “will help us really get the optimal fit in the ultralong-haul domain because the demand is not yet fit for the 777-ERs or a bigger gauge,” Mr Kazim said. These routes “fit quite well for medium-size aircraft and you don’t have firstclass demand, so it fits well because the A350 is [configured for] Business, Premium Economy and Economy class. It gives you the right economics”.
Emirates has 65 Airbus A350900 aircraft on order. The delivery will start in August and continue through the next three and half years.
The first of these will enter service on September 15 and its first destination will be Bahrain, Emirates said last week.
With 10 new A350s expected to join the Emirates fleet by the end of March 2025, the airline plans to deploy its latest aircraft to nine regional destinations in the coming months.
Emirates will operate its A350 jets to Kuwait, from September
16, and to Muscat from December 1. Scotland’s capital city Edinburgh will return to the Emirates network, with the launch of A350 flights from November 4. Other European destinations set to welcome the wide-body jets this year include Bologna and Lyon. Emirates will launch A350 flights to Mumbai and Ahmedabad in India in October, and to Sri Lanka’s Colombo in January.
“All these kinds of places will give you that required fit between the demand and the capacity and the aircraft efficiency that brings in route profitability,” Mr Kazim said.
Emirates is introducing the three-class A350 aircraft model for the first time to its fleet. The airline is currently the biggest operator of Boeing 777 widebody planes and Airbus A380 double-deck jets globally.
Emirates is “confident” about robust passenger demand to fill its A350s on the announced routes, Mr Kazim said.
The smaller capacity of the A350, compared to the bigger aircraft deployed on these routes, makes it “easier” to meet the market demand on these existing markets, he said.
“They are all being deployed into mature markets,” the executive said.
“We’re quite confident that the consumer will be well-receiving it, in terms of the product and in terms of the efficiency.”
Emirates has received assurances that Airbus will deliver its A350 aircraft on time, amid industrywide concerns about delayed jet handovers.
“We have already got the confirmation from the manufacturer that there won’t be any delay,” Mr Kazim said.
However, he acknowledged the challenges of dealing with Airbus and Boeing’s duopoly in aircraft manufacturing.
“Yes we’re frustrated, we’re not getting the right traction sometimes from some of them but that’s the engagement that we have to go through,” he said.
Emirates is “tweaking” its seat capacity to “minimise the impact on our business model” through its aircraft retrofit programme that will keep older jets
in service for longer, he said. The cabin upgrades come as Airbus has stopped making the A380 superjumbos and as Boeing lags years behind launching the new 777X wide-body jets that Emirates has on order.
Emirates has 88 of its Airbus A380s in the sky, out of a fleet of 116 superjumbos.
The remaining A380s are either in heavy maintenance checks after being grounded during the pandemic or undergoing the retrofitting.
Mr Kazim said the number of A380s in the sky will increase to 95 “as we progress towards the end of the [current] financial year”. Emirates’ financial year begins on April 1.
“We’re gradually getting close to almost full deployment of the A380s … we’re hoping by the next financial year to be in full deployment of the A380s,” he said.
Emirates is investing in the retrofit of its A380s to keep them as part of the core fleet until 2037, he said.
The airline is working closely with its suppliers to secure the necessary parts for the A380s to remain in operation and has a “stable” supply chain, Mr Kazim said.
Airline industry chiefs globally have voiced concerns about a shortage in aircraft and engine spare parts as the aerospace industry grapples with supply chain problems since the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Boeing has faced a spate of problems with its aircraft, with the most recent incidents in Turkey and Senegal.
Last Thursday, a Boeing 737-300 skidded off a runway in Senegal, leading to injuries to 11 people, among whom four sustained serious wounds.
That incident came a day after a Boeing 767 cargo plane in Istanbul belonging to FedEx landed on its nose after its front landing gear failed to deploy.