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Finally! Emirates Signs Deal For 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliners

ByAK
an airplane flying in the sky

This took a long time coming. But better late than never, at least for Boeing.

As you may know, Dubai AirShow 2019 is on and many airlines have placed aircraft orders. This year was looking bleak for Boeing, largely due to the 737 Max catastrophe. There were a few orders, but this has to be the most substantial (one more day to go for Dubai AirShow). Emirates has confirmed the order for 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliners at a list price of $8.8 billion.

Emirates and Boeing

Emirates was always known for the massive Airbus 380s it deploys on a lot of routes. However, recently it had shifted focus towards Boeing 777s. Earlier this year, Emirates had substantially reduced the A380 orders and replaced them with the smaller A350 and A330s.

In 2017, Emirates had entered into an understanding with Boeing to purchase 40 B787-10 Dreamliners for delivery in 2022. However, as per my understanding, a formal agreement was never signed. In fact, if you look at the last annual report by Emirates, the order book is as follows

  • 14 Airbus A380-800
  • 40 Airbus A330Neo
  • 30 Airbus A350-900
  • 35 Boeing 777-8X
  • 115 Boeing 777-9X (with an option of additional 50)

a group of airplanes with text 

In other words, no mention of Dreamliner.

 

Further, Tim Clark has been critical of Boeing (as well as Airbus) recently.

“We would be foolish to start adjusting or coming up with new contracts until we are absolutely sure these aircraft are going to do what they said they were going to do.”

“I think propulsion is an issue for us, and I’m a little bit irritated… I say you give us airframes and engines that work from day one. If you can’t do it, don’t produce them.”

Even on the second day of Dubai AirShow, Tim Clark had remarked on the B777x

“We need to be absolutely sure that as she comes together, as she starts flying, everything is done in a manner that it should be done,” Clark said of the 777

“I want one aircraft to go through hell on Earth basically to make sure it all works.”

Dreamliner To Replace 777x

It was rumored before and now there is a good chance of this happening. Emirates seems to like the Boeing 777x but is not sure of when the aircraft will be ready to fly. Certainly, Boeing will not be able to survive another disaster like 737Max and Emirates would have none of it.

As per the current statements and news articles, these are the deal contours:

  • The pending order of 40 787s have been changed to 30 aircraft
  • The order for 150 777x (comprising of 35 777-8X and 115 777-9X) has been reduced to 126

How Does Emirates Orderbook Look at the end of 2019?

It is worth noting that Emirates had also placed orders for 50 Airbus 350-900 in AirShow 2019. This order was at a list price of $16 billion. However, this agreement had replaced the earlier understanding of purchasing 30 A350-900 and 40 A330Neos.

Therefore, the expected orderbook of Emirates after AirShow 2019 is

  • 14 Airbus A380-800
  • 40 Airbus A330Neo
  • 30 Airbus A350-900
  • 35 Boeing 777-8X
  • 115 Boeing 777-9X (with an option of additional 50)
  • 50 Airbus A350-900 XWB
  • 30 Boeing B787-9
  • 91 Boeing 777-9X

 

11 Comments

  1. Hi,

    How do you rate the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite card? Would you suggest that, or would you suggest one of the higher end Citi cards?

    Reply

    1. Hey. I have the SC Visa Infinite Card. Don’t rate it very highly. It’s free for me because of my banking relationship.
      There are better cards in the market from Citi, ADCB and ENBD to name a few.

      Reply

      1. Right. Being offered free to me as well, which is why I was considering it.

        Within the Citi stable, would you prefer the Emirates Ultima, or the Prestige?

        Reply

          1. Got it. The Skywards card has a higher fee though, and lower effective miles earning vs. the Prestige (hence my confusion!)

          2. Yes. But Prestige TY points cannot be converted to Emirates Skywards. If you fly Emirates a lot, Skywards cards will give you more value.

  2. Pingback: Finally! Emirates Signs Deal For 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliners – Bubmag

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