Emirates to squeeze Boeing for bigger jet as delays cost $10.6 billion

An Emirates Airbus A350-900 is on display at Al-Maktoum International Airport during the Dubai Airshow 2025. Photo / Giuseppe Cacace, AFP

Emirates will keep pressuring Boeing to build a bigger jet, its president Tim Clark said on Tuesday, revealing that delivery delays had cost more than US$6 billion ($10.6b).

The Dubai-based long-haul carrier needs a larger plane to replace its giant Airbus A380s, which are already out of production and will be gradually phased out.

Emirates now wants Boeing to study a “stretch” version of its new 777-9, Clark told reporters at the Dubai Airshow, a day after the airline placed an order of 65 more 777X planes.

The 777X series, which includes the 777-8 and the 777-9, is already seven years behind schedule, with the latest delivery date pushed back to 2027.

“We want to have a good, hard look at the stretch of the 777-9,” Clark said.

“What we want them to do is commit to looking at it, and we want to have a real say in how that is designed.

“But we will keep the pressure on.

“I think that they are alive to the need, but they’re just very much hung up on what they have to do at the moment.”

Boeing, fighting back from a raft of problems including deadly crashes, has so far only agreed to a feasibility study for developing a larger 777X.

‘Up and flying’

Emirates, already the biggest buyer of the Boeing 777, now has 315 more of the US manufacturer’s jets pending after its latest, $67.4b order.

Clark doused speculation about an Emirates order for the Airbus A350-1000 at the Dubai Airshow, the biggest in the Middle East.

But he was confident other airlines would buy a bigger 777X. “If you do this, we will not be alone. There will be others out there who will want to take the stretch.”

He also said that retrofitting existing planes while waiting for the Boeing deliveries had cost Emirates billions.

“I’m not putting that at the door of Boeing, but put it this way: they are aware of the staggering effect that has had on an airline that is an organic business model.

“They’re accommodating and understand the problems.

“The most important thing for us is not the cash, it’s getting the aeroplane up and flying.”

On Monday, Brad McMullen, Boeing’s senior vice-president of sales and marketing, said the group had committed to study developing a larger plane.

“That’s what we’re gonna do.”

Also on Monday, Emirates said delivery of the 777X would start in the second quarter of 2027.

But after serial delays, Clark did not seem convinced.

“We’ll see,” he said.

– Agence France-Presse