Emirates unveils brand new A350 to be flown on Indian routes next year

Emirates unveils new Airbus A350 for flights to India, facing constraints on seat capacity and aircraft delivery delays

Emirates’s brand new Airbus A350 unveiled on Wednesday (November 27, 2024) will be deployed for flights to Mumbai and Ahmedabad beginning in February as part of the Dubai-based airline’s capacity “optimisation” in a market where it remains constrained by bilateral agreements on seats with India.

The first of the 65 Airbus A350-900 on order to join the Emirates fleet was unveiled at an exclusive event showcase in Dubai. The first scheduled flight on this aircraft type will be to Edinburgh on January 3, 2025.

The first batch of planes have a range of 12 hours and will be primarily used for the regional market and will be followed by those with an ultra-long haul range that will include a crew rest area and will join the fleet in June or July, explained Emirates President Tim Clark. He also indicated that the airline could “possibly” see more than 65 A350s implying another Airbus order.

The Emirates A350 has a seating capacity of 312 passengers in three cabin classes, which include Business Class lie-flat seats, 21 Premium Economy seats and 259 Economy Class seats with generous leg room. The airline flies both its Boeing 777 and the double-decker Airbus A380 on Indian routes, which are both bigger than the A350 and have more seats.

“The big constraint is the size of our aircraft given the number of seats we are allowed to use. So, we’re having to mix and match. Sometimes we put an aircraft and are not allowed to sell some of the seats,” Sir Clark told The Hindu reiterating the airline’s demand for a doubling of seat capacity between Dubai and India as the travel demand had tripled in this market since 2015 when the agreement was last drawn.

He said there should be 1,40,000 seats permitted by the airlines on both sides instead of the current 65,000 seats- a demand strongly opposed by Air India which is also expanding its fleet to provide non-stop connectivity to Europe and U.S.

The A350 also permits greater “flexibility” to add more frequencies, said Adnan Kazim, the airline’s Deputy President & Chief Commercial Officer.

The premium economy class on retrofitted Airbus A380s which was set to be introduced for flights to Mumbai and Bengaluru last year has been delayed but is still very much on the anvil. “It will offer an end-to-end product to go from short haul to long haul with the same type of product offering in the future,” Mr. Kazim explained.

On the paucity of available aircraft in the market hampering expansion plans for various airlines, Sir Clark said Emirates was a “frustrated entity” and finds its “wings clipped” during an expansionist phase due to the Covid-19 supply chain issues and delays in the deliveries of Boeing 777-9s.

“We need airplanes, and we need them now,” he told journalists.

The OEMs need to increase their production capacity by activating more production lines as airlines are unable to get aircraft when they are “screaming for them,” he said.

(The journalist was in Dubai at the invitation of Emirates)

Published - November 27, 2024 09:23 pm IST