Air Transport

Emirates executive vice-chairman Maurice Flanagan has raised the possibility that the Middle Eastern carrier could switch some of its freighter orders to passenger aircraft because, he claims, the freight sector suffers more heavily during periods of high fuel prices.

The Dubai-based carrier has 10 Boeing 747-8 freighters on order as well as eight 777 freighters.

But speaking to ATI, Flightglobal.com's sister premium news site, Flanagan said he would “rather see” at least some of them as passenger aircraft. “Cargo’s been a bit dodgy,” he says. “It seems to suffer [more] from increased fuel costs.”

While stopping short of stating that Emirates would convert part of its freighter order, Flanagan says the prospect is “not unrealistic”.

“I’m reasonably convinced you get more profit out of passengers than from the same capacity in a cargo aircraft,” he says, adding that he believes the Boeing 747-8’s passenger version “would deliver a better bottom line” than the freighter.

Emirates was one of the four customers for the A380 freighter and had planned to take two, before a specifications issue led the airline to convert its order to the passenger version.

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