Emirates Airline has received its 100th passenger aircraft, a long-range Boeing 777-300ER which brings its all wide-body fleet to a total of 111 aircraft, including 11 freighters.Emirates’ fast-expanding fleet, which has added one new aircraft per month on average, now comprises 53 Boeing 777s: two Boeing 777-200LRs, nine 777-200s, 12 777-300s, and 30 777-300ERs. Emirates currently operates Boeing 777-300ERs on the two non-stop New York-Dubai flights and will fly a new Boeing 777-200LR on its new non-stop service from Houston to Dubai, launching December 3. The airline is set to become the largest Boeing 777 operator in the world with another 45 of this aircraft type on order.

HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group said: “Back in 2003, when Emirates had 52 aircraft in our fleet, our plan was to grow to 100 aircraft by 2010. We’ve reached that mark three years early, but this is not enough. That was based on predictions that Dubai will have six million visitors by 2010. Visitors to Dubai last year already exceeded six million, and the new goal is 15 million tourists by 2012. Emirates has redrawn our growth plans accordingly.

“The new Boeing 777s will provide the backbone for our ultra long-range operations, allowing Emirates to expand our global route network and connect Dubai with non-stop flights to cities in North and South America, for instance, that were not possible before. Demand for our services has been very strong all around our network, and we are confident that this demand will continue to grow globally. We are positioning Emirates at the fore to serve this demand, by investing in the latest aircraft and equipping them with the latest travel comforts onboard.”

Emirates’ latest Boeing 777-300ER has been designed to provide customers with the greatest travel comforts on long-range journeys. It offers eight luxurious private suites in First Class, 42 lie-flat massage seats in Business, intelligently designed space and ergonomic comfort for 304 Economy class passengers, and ice Digital Widescreen in all classes of travel with more than 1,000 channels of on-demand entertainment delivered on personal digital TV screens.

The airline is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to introduce the latest in-flight products across its existing and future long-haul fleet.
——-