Dubai: Emirates, which completes 25 years of operations this October, is scheduled to take delivery of an average of two aircraft a month for the next 12 years.
Sir Maurice Flanagan (83), the recently knighted executive vice-chairman of Emirates Airline and Group, told reporters yesterday in Dubai that the airline's growth would continue in double-digit figures.
"We'll grow substantially over the years ahead. On average … we'll be taking [delivery of] an Airbus A380 and a Boeing 777 every month for the next 12 years," said Flanagan, who with Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, played a key role in launching the airline in 1985.
In the past two months, at the Berlin Air Show and Farnborough, the airline placed an order of 32 A380 aircraft at a list price value of $11.5 billion (Dh42.2 billion) and 30 777-300ER aircraft, worth approximately $9.1 billion (Dh33.4 billion) on list prices.
Additionally, Emirates has 48 Airbus 380s, 70 Airbus 350s, 18 Boeing 777-300s and 7 Boeing air freighters on order totalling 143 wide-body aircraft worth more than $48 billion. The airline will begin to take delivery of the A350s after 12 years.
"I don't know what the other guys are waiting for. That aircraft is absolutely superb," he said, referring to the superjumbo that has the lowest carbon footprint per passenger with a capacity of up to 525 in a three-class and 853 in all-economy configuration.
However Flanagan said while the airline received two aircraft a month, adding about 900 seats each time, on top of 142 passenger aircraft already in service, it was still facing a shortage in capacity.
"There are places that we could serve profitably, that we don't have the capacity to do yet... such as Kiev, Saint Petersburg and Chicago," Flanagan said.
He added that the company currently has landing rights in Australia that were not being utilised to the maximum due to a lack of additional aircraft, while it had unlimited landing rights in the US if the flight went via a third country.
While the aeroplanes would provide the space required for passengers to fly, Dubai's international airport capacity was also constantly being tested, which had resulted in ongoing expansion over the past decades.
"At some point, theoretically, our growth may be constrained by the capacity of this airport," he said.
Terminal 3, a dedicated Emirates terminal built alongside the original Shaikh Rashid Terminal, allows — at maximum capacity — up to 60 million passengers a year to pass through. The completion of Concourse 3, currently under construction, would allow a nominal capacity boost to 75 million passengers but Emirates said it could realistically handle 100 million passengers annually. With Dubai World Central offering a capacity of around 160 million passengers annually once Al Maktoum International's key passenger terminal is functional in about 10 years, Emirates says it will be able to transfer its hub there, to gain further capacity to utilise.
Emirates airline's financial year ended March 30, the 22nd year of profit, up 416 per cent to close at $964 million (Dh3.5 billion) over its 2008-09 profits of $187 million (Dh686 million).
This was on the back of a 20 per cent jump in passenger numbers travelling through Dubai as a destination and as a hub, that touched 27.5 million.
"We're perfectly positioned as a global hub, North, South or East to West. We can join any two points in the world with one stop in Dubai with the aircraft that we have now," Flanagan said.
