News
Emirates defeated on A380neo, mulls premium economy
June 10th 2016
“I can’t force Toulouse to do anything,” Sir Tim Clark, president of Dubai’s Emirates Airline told media at last week’s International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general meeting in Dublin, answering questions about the carrier’s urging of Airbus to produce a re-engined A380. Read More » Emirates has 142 A380s on order with 78 in service. “We will get our 79th soon,” said Clark.
Speaking to various delegates in Dublin, Orient Aviation understands that both IAG and Turkish Airlines are showing renewed interest in the A380.
Clark said passenger numbers were increasing by 4%-5%, despite the global economic slowdown. “But that is not enough to fill the capacity that is coming in. Seat and yield factors are not as strong as they used to be and the prognosis for me, for the next years, is about the same. But we always manage it; we have had good years and we have had bad years,” he said.
The Emirates boss said there was decreasing premium demand, especially from the oil industries. He suggested the time may be right for an Emirates premium economy product. This was “under consideration”, he said.
Across the Gulf, in Doha, Qatar Airways kept its promise to walk away from its first Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-powered A320neo. The carrier’s chief, Akbar Al Baker, reiterated he would cancel all future neos as soon as this becomes contractually possible. “We are still at an impasse. We have walked away from our first A320neo because it is more than a certain number of days late, so we exercised a walkaway clause,” Al Baker told Reuters.
At the Airbus Innovation Days 2016 in Hamburg, Klaus Roewe, head of the A320 programme, last week confirmed that issues with the PW1100G’s “FADEC nuisance faults” (the engine’s digital control system was sending false alarms to the cockpit) have been completely fixed following software updates. He said the other two problems, the GTF’s start-up time and hydraulic temperature, would be fully resolved by autumn and summer 2016, respectively. GoAir last week became the A320neo’s third operator, following Lufthansa and IndiGo Airlines.
