Emirates A350 Announcement

[Butch]

Not running it on any BKK or MNL routes as yet, but looking at the order book it's probably going to happen sometime in the future.

https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/emirates-announces-first-9-destinations-to-join-its-a350-network/#

I notice they mention PE will be available on 42 destinations by around Feb 2025.

Edited May 7 by Butch

[Freee!!]

3 hours ago, Butch said:

Not running it on any BKK or MNL routes as yet, but looking at the order book it's probably going to happen sometime in the future.

https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/emirates-announces-first-9-destinations-to-join-its-a350-network/#

I notice they mention PE will be available on 42 destinations by around Feb 2025.

As they have multiple daily A380 flights to BKK, I just don't see them using the (smaller) A350 on that route yet.

[Phantom51red]

• Edinburgh will rejoin the Emirates network from 4 November, operated by the A350. More details to follow soon.
•  
• Interresting hope they use a hub connection to bkk.

[KWA]

4 hours ago, Phantom51red said:

• Interresting hope they use a hub connection to bkk.

The flight will leave EDI at 20:40 so the only decent connection to BKK will be onto EK372 with an 85 minute transit.  A bit too tight for my liking.

On the return it's similar with a flight departing BKK at 09:30 giving a 95 minute transit arriving in EDI at 19:05.

[boydeste]

1 hour ago, KWA said:

The flight will leave EDI at 20:40 so the only decent connection to BKK will be onto EK372 with an 85 minute transit.  A bit too tight for my liking.

On the return it's similar with a flight departing BKK at 09:30 giving a 95 minute transit arriving in EDI at 19:05.

Yes, that's way too tight for my liking too.

[Freee!!]

I did some checking and I wouldn't be surprised if Amsterdam were to be one of the A350 destinations. There are three daily flights from AMS to DXB, two with B777 and one with A380. The A350 can comfortably replace the B777.

As for BKK, four of the five daily flights between DXB and BKK are with A380 but the fifth is with a B777, which can again easily be replaced by an A350.

Somehow I don't think this is good news for Boeing.

[KWA]

Emirates B777s won't be going away.  They already had plans to retrofit over 50 of them and they increased that number to 81 this week.  Retrofit is to include new seats, including Premium Economy, and new entertainment systems.

[Freee!!]

1 minute ago, KWA said:

Emirates B777s won't be going away.  They already had plans to retrofit over 50 of them and they increased that number to 81 this week.  Retrofit is to include new seats, including Premium Economy, and new entertainment systems.

Short term those B777 won't be going away because Emirates can't get enough replacements quickly enough while it is also expanding the route network and the frequency to major destinations.

However, with the clear advantages of the A350 like but not limited to higher passenger capacity, commonality of type rating with the A380 and better fuel efficiency, I'd say it is a matter of time. Add in the problems Boeing has with quality control and the writing on the wall is pretty clear.

[Butch]

On 5/8/2024 at 1:34 PM, Freee!! said:

Short term those B777 won't be going away because Emirates can't get enough replacements quickly enough while it is also expanding the route network and the frequency to major destinations.

However, with the clear advantages of the A350 like but not limited to higher passenger capacity, commonality of type rating with the A380 and better fuel efficiency, I'd say it is a matter of time. Add in the problems Boeing has with quality control and the writing on the wall is pretty clear.

The 777 is a reliable workhorse, if the running costs are comparatively low then they'll continue to use them, plus spares are relatively cheap and plentiful, as opposed to the A380 which Emirates (I think) purchased or retired one or two of them purely to use as spares donors.

We're talking about one of very few Airlines which kept their high capacity A380's during Covid and are keeping them in service while BA et al ditched theirs. Emirates don't miss a trick.

I really like the A350 though. I flew on a Singapore A350 HKG-MNL and it was every bit as good as their A380 offering. Saying that, the buzzsaw of the GE90-115B on a 777 is a rather iconic sound.