Emirates’ Cancelled A340 Order

Emirates flew the Airbus A340 for an extended period, leveraging its capacity to its advantage.

However, its reliance on the A340 could’ve been very different had an order for the A340-600 gone ahead rather than being cancelled.

What was the airline’s history with the aircraft, what happened, and how did the Dubai-based carrier move forward?

Emirates Orders The A340-600

Emirates’ order for the Airbus A340-600 came during a period when international growth was strongly emphasised, and certainly at a rapid pace.

Coming in the early 2000s, the deal for the A340-600 is often forgotten, given it occurred during a crucial period in the airline’s development and included orders for the Airbus A380.

The deal, which came in the early 2000s, saw the company commit to as many as 20 of the long-range, high-capacity A340-600s.

As part of the contract, the airline selected up to 20 models, including options that would allow it to activate them if it felt suitable.

Given the focus on the growth of the Dubai-based carrier, it was felt that the Airbus A340-600 would play a role in the airline’s day-to-day operations, with deployment to markets in the United States and Australia once delivered.

Emirates’ Push For The A340-600 Enhanced

Similar to Emirates’ recent push for the A380neo from Airbus and even larger aircraft, such as a possible A350-2000 and 777-10, Emirates also made the same calls for an enhanced A340-600.

In the early stages of 2006, the year the airline had hoped to begin deliveries of the high-capacity A340 model, discussions started about the possibility of launching a different model.

The President, Sir Tim Clark, said that while the order was still intact, there was significant interest in the possibility of the planemaker moving ahead with an enhanced model.

Emirates’ requests were clear: reject the existing A340-600 high gross weight (HGW) model that was being launched.

The company felt that if they were to take this model on the jet, it would be quickly leapfrogged by something better. This is not a good scenario during a period when the business was placing substantial focus on growth.

That Airbus A340 Enhanced was broken by Flightglobal in 2005, with reporting suggesting that the planemaker was studying an enhancement over the -600 base variant to better compete with the Boeing 777. This is why Emirates felt that if the newer model were moved ahead with the initial variant, it would become obsolete.

As the situation surrounding the A340-600 order became increasingly complex, concerns emerged about its status.

Concerns Over The A340-600 Order

Those concerns about the Airbus A340-6000 were heightened in April 2006, when the airline spoke with Reuters in an exclusive interview.

At the time, the Chief Executive of the Emirates Group confirmed that the order would be deferred or the deal scrapped entirely.

Emirates confirming its intention to move up to larger aircraft, specifically the Airbus A380, which it views as the optimal choice moving forward and will eventually become its flagship.

Talk of the airline scrapping the A340-600 obviously also followed in the previous year, along with concerns about the development of a prospective enhanced model and what this would do to the base variant it had ordered.

Emirates said it remained in close communication with Airbus on the specifics of the contract but felt that a world in which it would take on the high-capacity A340-600 was becoming increasingly likely.

The Chief Executive, however, reaffirmed that a decision to move away from the A340-600 possibly was not driven solely by frustration over the lack of an Enhanced model release, but rather by studies into fleet requirements.

An Order Cancellation Arrives

By the end of 2006, Emirates would cancel the Airbus A340-600 order after years of turbulence surrounding the prospect of acquisition.

The airline formally cancelled the order, and Mike Simon, an Emirates spokesperson, confirmed that the planemaker would not deliver the aircraft.

The frustrations were growing at this point between the Dubai-based company and the European manufacturer, as not just A340-600 orders were cancelled, but frustrations over A380 delays were growing.

Emirates’ history with aircraft has not been simple, and even into the 2020s, it continues to be frustrated by planners over delays in inbound aircraft that subsequently affect the business.

Following the A340-600 cancellation, Emirates was committed to rectifying the ongoing delays in its efforts to acquire new planes and even said it would send its own technicians to Toulouse to understand the cause of the delays better.

The aircraft delays occurred at a time when growth was crucial—the precise reason the A340-600 was purchased to begin with—to enhance growth.

Instead of going for this A340-600, Emirates would fly other A340 models and, in the long term, leverage the Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 for its day-to-day flying, as these were the only families available for an extended period before the first A350 was delivered.