Currently, Emirates Airline operates a fleet comprising only the Airbus A380 aircraft and Boeing 777s. While Emirates wanted more A380s, in an improvised version, Airbus shut down A380 production for a lack of future orders. This forced Emirates to rethink its fleet renewal strategy. The airline intends to keep the A380 aircraft flying through the mid-2030s, but they will be retired along the way.

Emirates now has the Airbus A350-900s, the Boeing 787-9 and the Boeing 777X to form the next backbone of the Emirates fleet. In May 2024, Emirates unveiled the curtain on their plans for the A350 aircraft, which was then intended to be received by the airline in August 2024. Emirates has 65 A350-900 aircraft on order at the moment, and it refused to order the A350-1000 aircraft to the fleet at the Dubai Airshow 2023. The A350s, per Emirates, are designated for medium and long-haul operations.

The Emirates A350-900 aircraft will offer three cabin classes: 32 Business Class seats, 21 Premium Economy seats, and 259  Economy Class seats. These aircraft are earmarked to serve short—to medium-haul cities on the Emirates network.

Emirates takes delivery of first A350 Aircraft

Emirates was initially supposed to receive its first Airbus A350 aircraft in May 2023. However, that date was pushed into 2024, and the airline planned to induct it into the fleet in August 2024. This date had continued to slip until today when Emirates confirmed that it had taken delivery of its first A350 aircraft in Toulouse.

A6-EXA is the first of 65 A350 aircraft to be delivered to the airline over the next few years. It is also the first new aircraft type to join the Emirates fleet since 2008. The aircraft was officially handed over to Emirates this morning and will soon embark on its ferry flight from Toulouse (TLS) to Dubai at 1600 hrs local time.

Once the Emirates A350 lands in Dubai, the aircraft will receive its finishing touches at Emirates Engineering before being officially unveiled at an event later this week.

What lies inside?

The initial batch of A350 aircraft will be in a three-cabin configuration featuring business class, premium economy, and economy. While the product will be revealed later this week, the layout will be a staggered one, with a 1-2-1 configuration.

For comparison, this is the Emirates Boeing 777 new Business Class in a 1-2-1 configuration.

The A350 aircraft will officially enter commercial service in January when it makes its debut flight to its first destination, Edinburgh, followed by eight other destinations across the Middle East, West Asia and Europe.

Here are the routes that were previously announced, with their new dates of launch of service with the A350:

• Edinburgh (EDI) on January 15, 2025
• Ahmedabad (AMD) on February 1, 2025
• Bahrain (BAH) on February 1, 2025
• Kuwait City (KWI) on February 1, 2025
• Mumbai (BOM) on February 1, 2025
• Colombo (CMB) on March 1, 2025
• Lyon (LYS) on March 1, 2025
• Bologna (BLQ) on March 15, 2025

Bottomline

Emirates has taken delivery of the first of its 65 Airbus A350-900s. This will mark the entry of another new aircraft type into the Emirates fleet, the first new aircraft since 2008 when the Airbus A380 was inducted into the fleet. Emirates has been consistently operating with the Boeing 777 and the Airbus A380 as the two aircraft in its fleet for a long time.

What are your expectations from Emirates’ Airbus A350s?

---

Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay. Every contribution helps cover the cost of the content generated for your benefit.

(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. For international transactions, use Paypal to process the transaction.)

We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.