DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — FlyDubai, the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates, said Wednesday it ordered 75 additional Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in a deal worth $13 billion. Emirates meanwhile bought eight Airbus A350-900 aircraft at a list price of $3.4 billion.
The announcements came after FlyDubai earlier at the Dubai Air Show made a major Airbus A321neo purchase of 150 aircraft for $24 billion. Since its first flight in 2009, FlyDubai had
only flown Boeing 737s, making the sale a major win for the European consortium at the biennial air show.
“Looking ahead, proactive fleet planning is essential to ensuring we are well-placed to meet the rising demand for travel, a demand we are confident will continue to grow,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the chairman of both FlyDubai and Emirates.
“Anticipating future needs is a defining factor in the success of any airline and today’s announcement reflects our commitment to that principle.”
FlyDubai and Boeing made the announcement in statements without a news conference.
“We are proud that Boeing airplanes will continue to serve as the backbone of FlyDubai’s strategic fleet and growth plans," Stephanie Pope, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in the same FlyDubai statement.
FlyDubai added it had options for an additional 75 Boeing aircraft as part of the deal.
Emirates' purchase of the A350s comes as airline has just started flying the plane, adding it to its fleet of double-decker Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s. Emirates earlier this week purchased 65 Boeing 777-9s with list price of $38 billion at the air show.
“Emirates now has a total of 375 units of the latest wide-body aircraft on its order book,” Sheikh Ahmed said. "This is a massive investment in our future, the future of flying better for our customers, as well as the future of aviation in terms of job and value creation.”
The announcement came as Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, announced it had 70.1 million passengers already this year and is on track to break its own records again.
The rapid growth of passengers at the airport underscores Dubai as a key hub for East-West travel in global aviation and the need for its $35 billion project to build a massive, five-runway airport at Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central.
“The most exciting thing is having created the world’s largest international airport for the last 11 years,” Paul Griffiths, the CEO of Dubai Airports, told The Associated Press. “We are now going to do it all over again, and I think that doesn’t happen in many people’s lifetimes.”
The city-state's second airport is now hosting the biennial Dubai Air Show, which already has seen major aircraft orders by both the long-haul carrier Emirates and its lower-cost sister airline FlyDubai.
Those purchases will fuel a major expansion of the routes flown by the two state-owned airlines as they move to Al Maktoum, likely beginning in 2032. Current forecasts predict the airport handling 150 million passengers a year at that point.
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom's Export Finance, the UK's export credit agency, issued a $3.5 billion expression of interest letter to back construction at Al Maktoum. That will provide guarantees to British firms to provide equipment and services to the airport project.
“This is going to be a massive effort of international cooperation from so many countries around the world providing all of the advanced systems,” Griffiths said.
“Hopefully we’ll have an airport not just capable of 150 million annual passengers, but one that absolutely exemplifies the best possible technology, the best processes.”
Among the innovations Griffiths hopes to see at the new airport will be an expansion of efforts at Dubai International Airport that allows first- and business-class passengers at Terminal 3 to simply walk through a tunnel to clear immigration.
“What we want is to take as much of that as we possibly can and the idea one biometric signature that’s captured discreetly from cameras that you don’t even see,” he said. “The idea is check-in, baggage handling, immigration, security, will all be handled in a seamless and efficient way and we want to keep the customer moving.”
Dubai International Airport, identified as DXB, is home to the long-haul carrier Emirates, which powers the network of state-owned and state-linked businesses referred to as “Dubai Inc.” The expansion of Al Maktoum, known as DWC, will also fuel a major real estate expansion in this sheikhdom in the United Arab Emirates as well as in its southern reaches. Dubai plans to move its airport operations to DWC, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) away from DXB.
A real-estate boom and the city’s highest-ever tourism numbers have made Dubai a destination as well as a layover. However, the city is now grappling with increasing traffic and costs pressuring both its Emirati citizens and the foreign residents who power its economy.
Last year, DXB had a record 92.3 million passengers, up from 86.9 million passengers in 2023. It had 89.1 million passengers in 2018 — its previous busiest-ever year before the pandemic, while 66 million passengers passed through in 2022.
In its rolling 12-month passenger numbers, DXB had 93.8 million passengers as of the end of September, meaning the airport is well on its way to breaking its record again this year.
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This story has been corrected to show the year-to-date traffic numbers as 70.1 million.
