Emirates says it has world’s largest widebody passenger fleet
Airline has a total fleet of 218 passenger aircraft and 14 freighters
Abu Dhabi: Emirates airline will finish this year as the airline with the world’s largest widebody passenger fleet of 218 aircraft and 14 freighters, the airline said in a statement on Wednesday.
This year, Emirates added 27 aircraft — 13 Airbus A380s, 12 Boeing 777-300ERs and two Boeing 777 freighters — to its fleet. These included its 50th A380, and its 100th 777-300ER aircraft.
“This year we have navigated through an 80-day period of reduced operations due to runway upgrades at our hub airport, regional conflicts which impacted our operations and flight routes, the Ebola outbreak, fluctuations in oil prices and currency exchange rates, and economic uncertainty in many markets worldwide,” Tim Clark, president of Emirates airline, said in a statement.
He added that Emirates continued to grow, despite such challenges, and continued to invest heavily in new technology to enhance product offering.
Since January 2014, Emirates has carried over 45 million passengers, operating an average of 3,516 flights per week, and carried over 2.1 million tonnes of cargo.
The airline also added frequencies to 20 existing destinations, and introduced services to eight new destinations this year which included Kiev, Taipei, Boston, Abuja, Chicago, Oslo, Brussels and Budapest.
Freighter operations
On the cargo front, Emirates SkyCargo moved its freighter operations in May to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central (DWC), providing capacity for future growth.
With $20 million worth of investments every year to install and operate in-flight connectivity systems, Emirates now provides Wi-Fi services on over 80 aircrafts, and is looking to roll it out across all its aircrafts, it said in a statement, adding that the airline is now updating the software to eventually give passengers unlimited and free access to Wi-Fi.
Also on the technology front, this year, Emirates introduced the Emirates App for iPads and iPhones allowing customers to manage details of their booking, and receive notifications for check-in, flight boarding, gate changes, and baggage belt numbers, among other aspects.
Additionally, 2014 saw the launch of Emirates’ $20 million “See You in Dubai” campaign to promote the emirate internationally.
