Emirates Says Jet Delays Are Disrupting Its Plans for Growth - Bloomberg

Emirates Says Jet Delays Are Disrupting Its Plans for Growth - Bloomberg

Emirates said aircraft delays from Boeing Co. and Airbus SE are disrupting the carrier’s growth plans, and added costs dwarf the compensation the Gulf carrier has received from the planemakers.

The setbacks include lost business from expansion it’s had to put off, as well as added costs to overhaul existing aircraft, Chief Commercial Officer Adnan Kazim said in an interview.

“There are a lot of missed opportunities,” Kazim said. “With how the growth is coming in, we are definitely in need of these aircraft now or yesterday even.”

Emirates is the latest airline to speak out about jet delivery delays costing them business. Deutsche Lufthansa AG CEO Carsten Spohr said this week that the hold-up in handovers was costing the airline several hundred million euros in annual earnings.

Emirates is spending $4 billion overhauling its existing fleet of Airbus A380 double-deckers and Boeing 777 jets, as the entry into service of the 777X that will replace those planes has been further delayed until 2026, while the first handover of the A350 model has been postponed multiple times this year.

The delays are creating a disruption to the airline’s growth plans and there is a shortage in capacity coming along the way, Kazim said. The date for entry into service of the 777X “has gone through many alterations in the past,” that the airline could no longer expect a clear time line for when it will join the fleet.

This month, Boeing said that it would push back plans for the 777X’s entry into service by another year to 2026 due to ongoing certification issues. The model was first scheduled to be delivered in 2020. Emirates has orders for over 200 777X, almost half the model’s total backlog.