Emirates president Tim Clark has sounded a warning to Airbus, threatening to order other aircraft if it delays the entry into service date for the A350 as happened with the A380.
“We have clearly told Airbus that we will not accept again what they did to us with the A380,” said Clark at the ITB tourism exchange in Berlin, adding that it was the airline’s view that Airbus should have built in “more margin in terms of time and performance parameters” and that margins were already being eaten into.
He added that unlike the A380 situation, the airline would easily look at alternative aircraft to the 70 A350s it has on firm order. “All I have to do is pick up the phone and order more Boeing 777s.”
Emirates intends to use the A350s to replace a number of aircraft in its fleet, including its early 777-200s and -300s as well as A330-200s and A340-300s. Clark has previously said that it would retain some of these aircraft longer if needed, although Emirates intends to maintain an average fleet age of less than 10 years.
