Major airline to spend $5 billion upgrading fleet | Money News

Emirates is channeling a massive investment of up to $5 billion into revamping the interiors of 220 Boeing 777s and Airbus A380s, striving to extend their service life amidst ongoing delays in deliveries of new jets.

Emirates president, Tim Clark, attended the ITB trade fair in Berlin, Germany this past week and on Wednesday he went over the plans for the airline, which is based in Dubai. 

Although boasting one of the youngest fleets globally, featuring modern and comfortable Boeing 777s and Airbus A380s, Emirates is changing its approach due to hurdles in expanding its network and fleet, reports Daily Express UK. 

Clark said: “We’ve had to take control of our own destiny. I could see the problems on the horizon, so we took the decision then, and thank God we did.”

He added: “We have no choice. This one is the only way we could sustain the network, grow the network.”

“The engineering groups are working at a pace to get these aircraft turned around as quickly as possible. We have most of the parts now that we need to do it,” said an Emirates spokesperson.

However, he added that Emirates “certainly” will not receive delivery of Boeing’s long-delayed 777X in 2025 as the latest model of the popular wide-body plane is still awaiting final certification.

Supply chain issues, engine maintenance and delivery delays at Boeing are expected to persist well into this year.

Boeing had initially planned to deliver Emirates its 777X in 2020 before certification delays and the pandemic intervened. Now, according to Bloomberg, deliveries of the upcoming 777X aircraft could be delayed until at least the second quarter of 2027 or even 2028.

In January, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg confirmed on a call that German airline Lufthansa would be the first carrier to receive a 777X delivery in 2026.