Emirates airline will introduce “smaller” aircraft to its fleet, as part of its post-Covid-19 strategy, the carrier’s chief operating officer has said
The Dubai airline currently has a fleet of all widebody aircraft – Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 – and has Boeing 777x, Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 XWB on order. The successful strategy saw Emirates grow to become the world’s biggest long-haul airline, operating a hub and spoke model from its Dubai base.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw the airline ground its passenger operations at the end of March, has led to a review of its fleet and strategy.
Adel Al Redha, Emirates airline’s chief operating officer, said the airline will need smaller aircraft as it looks to “redefine some of the operating model”.
“Going forward we cannot sustain long-term operating on that kind of fleet. We need to inject the smaller type,” Al Redha told Reuters.
Emirates is slowly starting to increase its operations, with flights to 40 cities in its current schedule. The airline said earlier this week that it’s seeing a positive trend of traffic building up across its network as it adds flights to more destinations and Dubai eases travel restrictions.
“The next few weeks will be a big test for the whole aviation industry in many ways,” chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said earlier this week.
Next month, Emirates will start to operate A380 flights to Paris and London.
Dubai will allow tourists from July 7, the first time since the UAE imposed travel restrictions because of the coronavirus.
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