It’s an exciting week for Emirates Airline, as the carrier has taken delivery of its very first Airbus A350. This is a massive milestone for the Dubai-based carrier, as it’s the first new aircraft type that Emirates has added to its fleet since 2008, when it started flying the Airbus A380. For that matter, it’s…
Continue reading: Emirates Adds Airbus A350-900 To Fleet: What To Expect
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Hopefully Emirates will bring one of their A350s to Atlanta. Atlanta would be a great destination for Emirates to bring their A350.
EK has had a tortured relationship with Airbus in the past - so it is great to see they are finally getting their A350s delivered; they still might or might not go with the A350-1000 of which they have been very critical, predominantly around the durability of the Rolls Royce engines even though EY and QR both operate the A350-1000s from their Middle East hubs.
EK is starting off with relatively short routes for their 359s but I expect they will start adding longer routes before long.
As a side note, DL has just overtaken EK as the largest operator of Airbus widebodies in the world with both over 100. Based on the pace of A350 deliveries for each of DL and EK and how many A380s EK decides to retire, the title could be passed back and forth or one could take a commanding lead. I suspect that retirements of the A380s will be tied closely to deliveries of the 777X which might be a couple years off.
I suspect EK and its passengers will be very pleased with the A350
Most likely crew familiarization where the cockpit crew, cabin crew, engineers, etc. get more accustomed to the aircraft. Probably do some loops and circuits in the Gulf. Similar to what JAL did between their first and second delivery of their A35Ks.
As an aside, they'll be switching vendors from Panasonic to Thales on their A350s and 777Xs which is the same system that Ethiopian has on their A35Ks. Maybe they got a better deal, I don't know.
Maybe the anti-Boeing audience of OMAAT might actually care about Tim Dunn's Airbus praise.
Because their mind is filled with "iF iT'S bOeING, i AiN'T GoINg!" crap.
Namely the pedophile poop freak BA apologist and most importantly Airbus fanboy, AeroB13a.
It hasn't been 6 years since a new aircraft. It's actually just under 3 years. They received their last new A380 in December 2021:
@ Ji-Hoon Kim -- Whoops, you're of course absolutely right, thanks! Updating post now.
thank you for providing a cogent, intelligent response... in contrast to others.
EK has established itself as the largest operator of a number of widebody types. Its sheer size and the number of orders it places makes it significant for manufacturers and the industry; that is true for other types. Some people are happy to remind us, accurately, that United has the most orders for its 787 fleet.
Delta just happens to have committed to an all Airbus widebody fleet for new aircraft which is split between the A330 and A350.
It is indeed significant that, at least at the moment, Delta has overtaken EK as the largest operator of Airbus widebodies.
Given that Boeing has long had the lead in widebodies, it is significant when you start seeing airlines that have more than 100 Airbus widebodies.
If others aren't interested in that information, they are free to pass over it.
It says everything about you, "Tim", that "Mason" is the response you found intelligent. what an idiot
lol
Jane,
you act offended that you weren't chosen. No one else is surprised.
none of which changes that DL and EK are RIGHT NOW neck in neck for largest operators of Airbus widebodies with multiple airlines in the process of having fleets of +/- 100 A350s.
@Plane Jane
That doesn't invalidate what I said.
The majority of OMAAT commenters are too busy with demonizing Boeing.
Also @Tim Dunn, I didn't especially said that as a defense of your claim.
"Tim"
I hadn't even written. There was nothing to "choose". But your immediate response to me made me feel super special 😉
The Airbus A350 for Emirates looks great. When it does fly the A350 to its new destinations. Maybe Emirates could fly the Airbus A350 to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane
For New Zealand it could do Auckland.
Mason,
I didn't say that you validated what I said. In fact, my approach is not at all about Airbus vs. Boeing but simply about the size of the fleet of either type.
You happened to have been the only person that made a rational contribution to a subthread and that is still true even though this subthread is the longest.
Just as with A vs B, there are some people that are so fixated with me that they feel a need to throw their commentary in even though it is solely about me.
None of which changes that, as of right now, Delta is the largest operator of Airbus widebodies in the world, a title EK has held for years. That title could be handed back and forth between DL and EK multiple times depending on how fast Airbus delivers the A350s that have been built but undelivered for EK as well as the deliveries that DL takes for both the A350 and 339, a number of which Airbus still is expected to deliver to DL before the end of the year.
A quick look on FR24 and it’s the most tracked flight at the moment, about an hour out of DXB.
The A350 and A380 will be the longest range aircrafts in Emirates fleet ~8200 mm, giving them great flexibility. Perhaps Emirates will indeed configure a few with premium-heavy configurations for ultra- long haul routes. I would rather fly 16 hours with 200 people than with 400 in an 777x or A380.
Knowing Emirates the A350 product will be the exact same as the A380 and “new” 777 seats, boring 1-2-1 staggered seats.
Would’ve been nice if they actually innovated and installed something newer
Hopefully Emirates can bring the Airbus A350 to Nadi. Nadi would be great to see Emirates Airbus A350.
But this will have to be 2 times a week
(Monday and Saturday)
They're clearly intending this aircraft to service ports where first doesn't sell. There's no point running a first class cabin for redemptions, upgrades, and ID tickets.
The 777-200LR has longer range than both the standard A350-900s and A380s. Emirates has 10 777-200LR in its fleet.
I do wonder about the crew rest aspect of it. While the destinations currently lined up are all in the short-mid haul range EK had been planning to use these to service ADL as recently as a few months ago. Unless these plans have been quietly shelved I can only imagine that must mean either that they do have crew rests onboard, or that they plan to have a future batch with them at the very least.
Emirates announced today that the commencement of the A350 Edinburgh (EDI) service has been brought forward to January 3rd, 2025.
I doubt that the planes were built w/o the crew rest module with the intention to add it later.
It is possible that EK doesn't intend to use them all for flights that require a crew rest module by their standards.
It is probably a leap to connect the routes that are chosen to the presence or lack thereof of crew rest modules. Airlines frequently keep newer fleet types closer to home during the process of induction.
When did DL overtake EK as having the most Airbus widebodies? DL has 106 and EK has 117 near as I can tell.
Like I've said below, it's apparently doing circuits over the Gulf for the crew get accustomed to the aircraft.
I know there are some if not a lot of you that are disappointed in the business class seats, but how do these seats compare to the likes of comparable staggered products like ANA, Qantas, etc. which are being flown on much longer sectors?! Honest question. If anything, these are perfectly fine for short-medium haul hops. I would not be surprised if something more posh with doors and other creature comforts get introduced on later builds with crew rests. It's a seat regular fliers are familiar with and Emirates does not have to try too hard to bring in passengers.
Emirates needs to be better because they don’t fly nonstop to anywhere to where ANA and Qantas fly to.
People want to fly to Japan or Australia nonstop, Emirates does not offer that. Emirates specifically needs to bring in passengers with a better product or it’ll get left behind.
Qatar and Turkish Airlines have realized that and stepped up their game. Emirates simply has not kept up. At best this maintains the status quo for Emirates, but Emirates has lofty plans of growing to 100M passengers a year and their fancy new DWC airport. They are competing for connecting traffic and falling a step behind by not innovating.
That's a very specific request! Would flights on a Tuesday or Sunday not work?
People fly Emirates because of the brand, allure and prestige that comes with it the same way most people buy iPhones no matter how disappointing the yearly upgrades are.
Since you bring up Turkish, how do their Crystal Suites compare to these A350 seats aside from the door (if we're talking strictly hard-product)? Like I've said, it's still within a realm of possibility that later build frames meant for long-haul hops can get a more posh product with a door and other creature comforts. And it looks like these seats are much more comfortable than the Stelia Symphony found on Turkish and SQ.
Absolutely not. People in the US (the highest yielding market) are not flying Emirates for the branding.
Most of them are flying it as a onestop option (often to India or Africa).
US originating passengers will continue to prefer their nonstops it Japan and Australia. Hard product almost certainly ranks higher than branding and marketing for consumers making decisions.
"People in the US (the highest yielding market) are not flying Emirates for the branding."
Ehh, I think you're too emerged in the avgeek community. Step outside it, and especially if you venture onto social media, and you'll see Emirates branding is indeed a huge attraction even here in the States.
I bet if I polled everyone in my workplace right now, easily 80% of people would rank Emirates as the most luxurious or aspirational airline.
@TD that last comment under "Redacted" was not me. I'd bet it was Plane Jane, who certainly lacks mental sharpness based on the irrelevance and stupidity of most of their posts (insulting others rather than providing any meaningful dialog).
If you look at the flight tracker for the delivery flight they flew almost all the way up to London before turning around and heading for Dubai. Anyone know why?
Looking at the seat map for the new A350, is there only one toilet for business class?
Wish Seatguru was still around... their own proprietary seatmaps and other sites like AeroLOPA just ain't good enough (no ability to comment, highlight good seats, trash bad seats, etc.)
Anyone know why TripAdvisor did what it did/shut it down?