Emirates, the world's biggest long-haul airline, will take delivery of its first Airbus A350-900 in the first week of November, after it was pushed back from October due to delays.
The plane will fly to Edinburgh as its first destination, the airline said.
"The aircraft is in the final stages of testing and things are going in the right direction," Adel Al Redha, Emirates' deputy president and chief operations officer, told The National on Tuesday on the sidelines of Aviation Future Week in Dubai, said.
"You always expect a few glitches with the first type of aircraft. So there's lots of co-ordination with the suppliers, lots of first-time connection of different systems."
Emirates is resuming flights to Edinburgh starting from November 4 using a Boeing 777 and will deploy the A350 on the route in December for the new aircraft's first entry into service, the airline said.
"When the aircraft comes, it's going to take over the continuation of Edinburgh [flights] and then later on when we receive more of the aircraft we will do more destinations in India and some more in the Gulf," Mr Al Redha said.
The Airbus A350 jets are central to Emirates' long-term strategy. The airline aims to use them to serve ultra-long-haul destinations in the US, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand – each up to 15 hours of flying time from Dubai – after the initial launch of the wide-body jets on mainly regional routes.
Emirates has 65 Airbus A350-900 planes on order, the first deliveries of which were supposed to be made in August this year but were first delayed until October and are now expected next month.
Airbus deliveries fell 9 per cent in September to 50 jets compared with the same month in 2023, as suppliers struggle to meet demand.
"We are working very hard on it ... and it's going to be a very fantastic moment," Wouter Van Wersch, Airbus' executive vice president of international, told The National on the sidelines of the event. "We are all looking forward to this. For Emirates, they are very used to the A380 but they will see the A350 is an amazing aircraft and I'm sure that it will enable them to do a lot of great things. We're very excited about this."
Work on A350-1000 jet engines
Emirates was also interested in the larger variant of the plane, the A350-1000, but airline president Tim Clark expressed concerns about the durability and longevity of its Rolls-Royce engines. The UK engineering giant has defended its Trent XWB-97 engines and said it is taking steps to improve durability and boost their performance.
Asked about Emirates' assessment of the A350-1000 with the work Rolls-Royce is undertaking on the engines, Mr Al Redha said: "We are close to the development but none of us are ready yet at this stage to commit because the outcome of the development hasn't been seen yet and it's effectiveness has yet to be demonstrated. There is nothing concrete in there to have both parties sign [a deal]."
Mr Van Wersch said Rolls-Royce had done "tremendous work" on the engine and are "clearly conscious" about what is needed. "The engine has always been a little bit of a hot topic," he said. "There is very good progress and we hope that Emirates will be convinced also to go for it.
"We've got many customers [globally] that have the A350-900 and that are now also moving to the A350-1000. That means the confidence is there and I hope we will give the right confidence also to Emirates and Sir Tim to make it happen shortly ... we think there's a logic to have both modules in the fleet, especially with a great and a big airline like Emirates."
Emirates expands refurbishment programme
Emirates is also expanding a programme to retrofit its Boeing 777 and Airbus A380s to a total of 205 aircraft at a cost of $4 billion, up from 191 at a cost of $3 billion, Mr Al Redha said.
This comes as Boeing last week said it would delay the debut of its long-anticipated 777X aircraft until 2026, from an earlier delivery date in 2025. Emirates, a major buyer of the wide-body plane, on Monday said it would have a “serious conversation” about this with the US plane maker in the next two months.
"We have been predicting the delay and we have been introducing a different plan to extend the retrofit [programme] to more than the existing plan. The nature of the modification might change," he said, declining to reveal details.
Emirates has completed the retrofitting of 31 aircraft in total so far, after work on the programme began in 2022.
Half-year financial results
Airlines in the Middle East are grappling not only with supply chain problems, but also navigating their business through the two conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon where the war with Israel has intensified.
The wars have prompted airlines to suspend some flights or to avoid affected air space. "We have to identify alternate routes, which requires additional fuel because it takes longer," Mr Al Redha said. But the airline's costs have not risen significantly so far.
"It has not been a material impact [on earnings] because some of the flights we cancelled were only in the last two weeks," he said.
The airline typically announces its first-half year results in November. "The [financial] results will be pleasing because the revenue coming from passenger and cargo has been quite positive, so the results will be good," Mr Al Redha said.
Travel demand has held "strong" across Emirates' network, with load factors "in excess" of 80 per cent this month, which is "very good, considering it is non-travel season", he added.
