Emirates to delay B777 deliveries
By Jane Ferguson, Business Features Writer
Published: May 01, 2009, 22:51
Seattle: Emirates will slow the delivery of new Boeing 777 aircraft next year, Gulf News has learnt.
Speaking a day before the delivery of the airline's 75th Boeing 777, Abdullah Al Shams, manager of the Emirates Boeing fleet acceptance team at the Everet factory near Seattle, said that from 2010 deliveries would be delayed by a few months.
"We do have deliveries until April 2010 and then we have a slowdown on the deliveries for the following year," Al Shams said.
"The slowdown in deliveries is related to the credit crunch and with the airline business today we do have a little bit of a slowdown on the different aspects of the business."
The delivery of an aircraft such as the 777 must be accompanied by full payment for it, explained Al Shams
"This plane is going to be paid off tomorrow," he said. "It's going to be delivered tomorrow morning. We're going to take off within four hours of the payoff."
Aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing are facing an increase in cancellations of orders for new airplanes. Boeing's report of its first quarter results showed a 50 per cent decline in profit, due primarily to the slowdown in new orders.
As a result, the company is consulting with customers on revised payment options and arrangements, said Boeing officials in Seattle.
The list price for a Boeing 777 ranges from about $250 million (Dh920 million) to $275 million, but Shams declined to comment on whether Emirates has been granted any discount on current orders, which those involved say will bring the fleet to over 100.
Emirates however, has not cancelled any orders, stressed Al Shams, as some other airlines have done.
"At this moment our figures and our delivery are still there, nothing has been cancelled," he said. "All the airlines in general have deferred their delivery timetables."
The airline plans to have a full fleet of between 106 and 108 777s, he added, and despite delays they are on their way to achieving that.
"We will be hitting a milestone in the aviation of 777s in August," Al Shams said.
"We are going to be the largest in the market after Singapore Airlines."
In August Emirates will receive its 78th Boeing 777.
"Unless someone comes along and buys more, but with today's economic situation and the crunch I believe we will be holding that position for a while."
Despite the delays in aircraft deliveries, Shams remains upbeat about Emirates' prospects in a region where the industry is still growing. "We were affected too [by the global recession] but we are still holding our position and we are providing the same service around the world," he said. "We are filling seats."