#Dubai Air Show: Emirates Not Ordering With Airbus Until Engine Issues Are Fixed - Bloomberg

Dubai Air Show: Emirates Not Ordering With Airbus Until Engine Issues Are Fixed - Bloomberg

Emirates President Tim Clark dashed Airbus SE’s hopes of pulling in a large order at the Dubai Air Show, saying he’s not buying more of their flagship A350-1000 until engine performance issues have been fixed.

Clark said the engine on the aircraft, built exclusively by Rolls Royce Holdings Plc, doesn’t meet the requirements in terms of time on the wing until the next maintenance cycle. Emirates would be in the market for 35 to 50 of the A350, Clark said, in what would add to an existing order book of 50 units of the smaller -900 widebody variant.

“If they can do that at a maintenance cost per hour that’s alright for us,” then Emirates would order the aircraft, Clark said in a meeting with journalists at the Dubai Air Show. “But it’s not doing that at the moment.”

Airbus had sought to follow Boeing Co.’s success, after the US company won a huge order valued at $52 billion with Emirates on Monday. The European company is the biggest supplier of the A380 super-jumbo aircraft for Emirates, though that plane is no longer in production and Emirates is currently rebuilding its fleet with new orders to factor in the switch.