Emirates Plans More Jet Orders As Long-Haul Travel Rebounds - Bloomberg

Emirates Plans More Jet Orders As Long-Haul Travel Rebounds - Bloomberg

Emirates will look to place orders for more aircraft in the next few months as demand for long-haul travel rebounds and the carrier looks to lock in delivery slots.

“We will probably order more in the next few months on top of what we already have,” Emirates President Tim Clark said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. Clark declined to comment on the details of the order, including which manufacturer he was speaking to, or the size of the order.

Emirates has large backlogs for the upcoming Boeing Co. 777X, that it plans to bring into service from summer 2025, as well as the Airbus SE A350 model, with deliveries from August next year. Clark said Emirates is extending the life of its existing A380 super jumbo and 777 fleets due to long lead times for aircraft deliveries.

The world’s biggest long-haul carrier, Emirates says it has seen demand surge as travel restrictions ease, especially on services to and from the UK, as well as Europe and the US. Clark said that at one point, for every business class seat Emirates sold out of London, there were four or five people trying to get a slot, driving fares higher.

Emirates will only be able to restore its pre-pandemic network by the middle of next year 2024, when it brings back 20 A380s that are out of service awaiting overhaul, Clark said. Thereafter, the carrier will expand to an additional 15 destinations in the Americas, Africa and elsewhere, he said.

While he expects economy-class fares to settle down as more carriers ramp up capacity, Clark said that he wasn’t sure about premium class fares dropping in the long-run given lower capacity.