Emirates To Order A350-1000?

Emirates is reportedly set to order the Airbus A350-1000 again, with 30 units reported, including options for more.

With the 2025 edition of the Dubai Airshow rapidly approaching, this would be the perfect time to formally announce the deal, or at least to advance talks further.

Bloomberg News reported that discussions are ongoing, with several sources identifying that the planemaker and a major global airline are seeking to reach an agreement.

For an airline seeking to grow its fleet and rely more on high-capacity models, it’s no secret that a model such as the A350-1000 has long been considered beneficial.

A possible order for the A350-1000, which still needs to be finalised and is subject to change, especially for an airline like Emirates, which has seen deals collapse in the final minute, would represent a repeat order.

Initially, when Emirates committed to the A350 aircraft at the 2007 edition of the Dubai Airshow, the A350-1000s were included, but ultimately this entire deal was shelved before Emirates returned some time later and committed to the program once more.

With the possibility of the Airbus A350-1000 joining the orderbook, Emirates would look to rely on the A350 and 777X families for future long-haul flying needs, with these the high-capacity series selected.

Emirates Needs Larger Aircraft

The prospect of adding the A350-1000 follows a period in which Emirates has driven much of the discussion about adding larger aircraft to its fleet.

With the Airbus A380-800 only continuing to age and calls for an A380neo going unanswered, Emirates has shifted its focus to the A350 Stretch and even the 777-10.

While these two models are currently not released, an A350-1000 order would not be considered a means to end its interest in larger planes; with the A380 beginning to age, the airline needs to look elsewhere.

Under current forecasts, Emirates believes it’ll be hard for the A380 to continue flying beyond 2041, and with Airbus and Boeing abandoning their interest in superjumbo jets, the Dubai-based customer needs to readjust its expectations.

Emirates will, though, do everything in its power to keep flying the world’s largest passenger plane for as long as possible, knowing just how important the jet is to its day-to-day operations.

However, the airline’s president, Sir Tim Clark, reaffirmed his stance that he does not want to cut short the life of specific units to keep others operational, instead hoping to maximise utilisation.

The maximisation of available aircraft has been lacking over recent years, with the company keen to boost active units to 110 by the end of 2026, up from the 95-96 models currently active.

As for the prospect of a new aircraft launch based on the company’s requests, Airbus and Boeing have not responded, but Emirates feels that calling for larger twin-engine jets is the much more realistic option moving forward.