Flybystring, sorry to yank your chain but I have the article, (Gulf News, June 1 business section) in front of me. "Emirates and Qatar Airways to place orders for up to 120 aircraft". The article explains Emirates will order a combination of A350s and Boeing 777-200LRs without specifying a number; Qatar airways will take 50 to 60 B787s. (By my calculations that leaves a maximum of 70 Emirates orders, probably less). This ties in with the Flight article pretty accurately in my view. Also there is every reason for Emirates to take the A346, (I think 10 firm orders and 8 options). The A345 was taken because it was the only ulta-long haul aircraft available at the time, as the 777-200LR would not be available until much later. The routes envisaged for it have not materialised and it has been employed on routes for which it was never designed or purchased. The A340-600s that are on order are the high gross weight version which will not be available until 2007. This means that on a summers day in Dubai they'll take a full load for 14 hours, whilst the B777-300ER will do about 11 hours. The B777-200LR, which will shortly be available, has greater range than the A345 so it makes sense that if Emirates wishes to be in the ultra-long haul game they need the longest range equipment, so a swap is sensible. The A346 HGW and the B777-300ER are not competing at EK, they are complimentary. The main rival to the A346 has to be seen as the A380. If the 11 to 16 hour sector lengths are on destinations where 380s can be gainfully employed, then the A346 becomes redundant.
HUB
