Emirates cuts aircraft types

DUBAI Emirates has adopted an all Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 fleet after retiring the last of its Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft.

This makes Emirates the first and only airline worldwide to rely entirely on a fleet of all Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft.

Emirates recently retired the last of its 29 Airbus A330s. The last of the A330 joined the fleet in 2002 and had flown for over 60,000 hours traveling close to 45 million kilometres in 14.5 years.

The airline also retired its last serving Airbus A340, which had joined the airline in 2004.

Since January 2015, Emirates has retired 18 A330 and five A340 aircraft from its fleet.

The average age of the Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft phased out from the fleet was 16.5 years- a figure which is well below the industry standard retirement age of 25 years.

Emirates plans to further phase out some 25 aircraft over the course of 2017 and 2018 to ensure Emirates operates one of the youngest fleets in the industry with an average age of 5.2 years.

The two youngest aircraft in the fleet (Emirates’ 85th A380), delivered in October, along with Emirates’ 125th Boeing 777-300ER- are less than two weeks old.

In 2016, Emirates will have taken delivery of 36 new aircraft — 20 Airbus A380s and 16 Boeing 777. This also includes the next generation Boeing 777-300ER aircraft — with upgraded business class seats and other features including a lower fuel burn ratio — to be delivered from November 2016.

Emirates is currently the largest operator of the Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft with 85 Airbus A380s and 160 Boeing 777s in its fleet.