The need for Emirates to eventually replace its Airbus A380 superjumbos was behind its call on 17 November for a feasibility study into a potential Boeing 777-10 – even though the latter’s capacity, or that provided by a potential Airbus A350-2000, would still be “not nearly enough”.
That was the explanation provided by Emirates president Tim Clark during a media roundtable that took place the day after the carrier had suggested it might be interested in a stretched 777X at this year’s Dubai air show. Its comments accompanied an order for 65 more of the much-delayed 777-9, the first of which Emirates now expects to receive in early 2027.
“What we want them to do is commit to looking at it and we want to have a real say in how it is designed,” Clark says of Boeing and a potential 777-10.
“Could the aircraft be stretched? Yes,” he says, adding that he believes GE Aerospace is “fairly confident that the [GE9X] engine on the [777-9] has growth in it”.
“So all the ingredients of a possible stretch are there.”
Crucially, a 777-10 is “the only one that’s going to come anywhere near the seat count we’d like” when Emirates’ Airbus A380s exit its fleet in the late 2030s and early 2040s, Clark states, while again lamenting that an aircraft of equivalent size to the superjumbo is not available to order.
“That’s why we’re thinking that somewhere in the [20]30s, this aeroplane would be plugged into the fleet,” he says of a potential 777-10.
But with Boeing’s focus today on certification of the 777-9, the motivation behind Emirates’ comments about a 777-10 feasibility study in Dubai was “putting a marker down”, he says, rather than demanding immediate action.
He notes that with previous aircraft types, stretches have tended to become available five or six years after initial service entry.
“We will keep the pressure on them,” he says of Boeing. “I think that they are alive to the need but they’re just very much hung up on what they have to do at the moment.
“With the pace of the certification of the [777-9], they can’t think, ‘let’s do this one first’.”
Regarding a potential Airbus A350-2000 – which could be an alternative to a 777-10 – “I know they’re working on it… but we don’t know what it is”, Clark says of the European airframer.
“In the past, when Emirates has got involved in design, things tend to happen, but it hasn’t happened here,” he says.
“They seem to be doing it in their own little way.”
Clark notes that his phone is “full of messages” between him and the chief executive of Airbus’s Commercial Aircraft business Christian Scherer “going back many years” regarding his frustration that the A350-1000 is too small.
The Emirates president foresees a number of challenges with developing an A350-2000, including his belief that it would need a new powerplant, given the challenging operating conditions in the Middle East.
“In my view, it’s a new engine for the –2000,” he says. “I’m not sure the [Rolls Royce Trent XWB-97] has the capability of doing what that needs to be done in our conditions.”
Moreover, Clark’s concerns about the Trent XWB-97 have already prevented Emirates from commiting to the A350-1000.
“It’s a work in progress,” he says of efforts to address those concerns while adding that there was no truth to pre-Dubai air show stories suggesting Emirates was set to place an A350-1000 order at the event.
“It’s not something we can commit to at the moment.”
Whatever the outcomes at Airbus and Boeing, Clark believes demand for larger widebodies would come from many carriers beyond Emirates, particularly given infrastructure and slot constraints at key hubs around the world.
Almost one decade ago, in 2016, Singapore Airlines was reported to be working with Airbus on a potential A350-2000 and Boeing on a stretched 777X with an order in mind, but the projects came to nothing.
Emirates was a driving force behind development of the A380, but ultimately became the only carrier to use the type at scale.
