Dubai-based carrier Emirates is in talks with Airbus to expedite delivery of its A350 wide-body aircraft amid delays with delivery of Boeing's 777X model.
The Gulf carrier is planning to have two Airbus jets a month delivered, with the first deliveries starting in the summer of 2024, Tim Clark, the airline's president, said in Doha on Monday.
"We're talking to Airbus about compressing the delivery scale, so we will probably get up to two a month, we've got 50 coming so we're trying to get the whole lot done in two years to pick up this big capacity," Clark said in a briefing at the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) annual general meeting in Doha.
In 2019, Emirates placed an order at the Dubai Airshow for 50 of the A350-900 XWB aircraft worth $16 billion. The delivery of these aircrafts was supposed to start in May 2023 and run until 2028. However, the deliveries have been delayed because of the global supply challenges that arose due to the pandemic.
On the other hand, Boeing won't start delivering their 777X model before 2025, five years later than originally planned, and said it won’t resume production until 2023.
In 2013, Emirates placed an order of more than 100 aircrafts of that Boeing model, and has a tentative deadline of July 2025 for deliveries.
Clark said he’s not convinced that Boeing’s new delivery target will be met and that the situation regarding the plane’s General Electric Co. engines is particularly confused, with the turbine yet to be subjected to scrutiny from Emirates, "let alone the flight test program."
Emirates is expected to meet Boeing in Dubai next week to seek more clarity on the delivery timeline and programme.
According to Clark, there will be "serious repercussions" if Boeing failed to meet the proposed timeline.
