Emirates considers Airbus 350 and Boeing 777X for new freighter order

Airline expects to make a decision within weeks, executive says

Emirates currently has a fleet of 11 Boeing 777 freighters. Photo: Emirates Group

Emirates is in talks with Airbus and Boeing for a new freighter aircraft order and is weighing the freighter versions of the A350 and 777X as it plans to triple its cargo fleet by 2030.

The airline expects to make a decision within weeks amid a capacity shortage due to late aircraft deliveries and strong demand for air cargo services, Nadeem Sultan, its senior vice president of freighters and cargo planning, told The National at the Aviation Future Week on Wednesday.

“A further announcement in terms of investments in the freighters” is coming in “the next couple of weeks”, he said.

The size of the order is still undecided as talks with both Airbus and Boeing continue. “We are finalising that now,” he said.

Emirates is evaluating the freighter models amid further delays on Boeing’s 777X programme to 2026, from an earlier deadline of 2025, making it nearly six years late.

The A350 freighter is powered by Rolls-Royce's Trent XWB-97 engines and Emirates president Tim Clark has previously expressed concerns about its durability in harsh weather. Rolls-Royce has said it has invested heavily to improve performance.

Emirates is seeking to expand its freighter fleet to upto 35 aircraft by 2030. Photo: Emirates

Emirates currently has a fleet of 11 Boeing 777 freighters, with a number of Boeing 747 freighters on lease.

It has nine Boeing 777 freighters on order. These include five jets ordered in July to replace planes with expiring leases, and four from an order made in 2022.

Boeing's delivery dates on the 777 freighters have slipped by four to six months recently, according to Mr Sultan.

“It has a massive impact in terms of capacity, especially now as we enter the peak season, traditionally for air cargo that is now in October, November and December. And unfortunately, we're short of capacity because of these delays,” he said.

The airline was supposed to get delivery of five aircraft but only received one and expects the rest during the current financial year, that ends on March 31.

“We're supposed to get new aircraft in but they have not come yet, but we have to let some aircraft go back to the lessor, so now we're in this capacity crunch where we are at least three aircraft short at the moment,” he said.

Emirates is evaluating its freighter aircraft order depending on delivery dates.

“We are in this odd situation where if you have a bag of money today, you can go to both manufacturers but you have to wait at least three to four years before you get an aircraft,” Mr Sultan said.

For its passenger aircraft, Emirates already operates Boeing 777 wide-bodies and is taking delivery of its first Airbus A350-900 early next month, so the freighter versions of both aircraft will give the airline “economies of scale”.

Emirates's freighter order decision will centre on the Rolls Royce engine issues on the A350 freighters and reliable delivery times for the Boeing 777X freighter. AFP

The A350 freighter has a smaller capacity of 108 tonnes, while the 777-8 has a payload of 118 tonnes.

“The operating economics of the A350 freighter are very good. It also has a bigger door than the 777-8. So when assessing both, the A350 and 777-8 both give economy of scale … both of them are solid, good freighters, but they're slightly different,” Mr Sultan said.

When it comes to the A350, “our concern is around the engines”, he said.

“The A350 freighter has the same engine as the A350-1000 passenger variant, so as we've seen in this region with hot climate, the engine durability has big issues so that's prevents us from making a decision on that,” he said.

For the 777-8 jets, “the whole uncertainty is around the delivery timelines and Boeing's ability to meet those timelines”, he said.

“Even if they promise a timeline today, we see the delays on the 777X passenger aircraft … we should have had this delivered to us at least five years ago and we're still waiting,” he said.

The airline is also keeping options for wet-leasing freighters for the next decade to have some flexibility in the fleet and to mitigate the risk of capacity shortages.

“It's a tough call … once we've made a call, we will risk-mitigate that. Obviously now we use ACMI [aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance] capacity and that's something we will keep in the fleet for the next decade to manage that risk of aircraft coming in or going out,” Mr Sultan said.

The airline plans to have a freighter fleet of 32 to 35 aircraft by 2030, Mr Sultan said.

The freighter fleet expansion comes as Emirates, which currently handles 2.5 million tonnes of cargo per year, expects capacity to grow to 12 million tonnes in a decade, he said. This is in addition to the belly-hold capacity of the 300 passenger aircraft that the airline has on order.

“So in tonnage terms, our capacity is going to grow tremendously,” he said. “The challenge now is how do we get them in.”

The airline is also seeing more demand for air cargo that terminates in the UAE amid the country's growing population, the influx of new businesses and as the country boosts its position as a global logistics hub.

“So overall, maybe 10 years ago, it was primarily transit and now actually we have a big share of our cargo that is UAE-terminating,” Mr Sultan said.