Emirates Signs For 10 Boeing 747-8 Freighters
Emirates Signs For 10 Boeing 747-8 Freighters
Emirates,
one of the world's fastest growing international airlines,
has
signed a Heads of Agreement for 10 freighter versions
of Boeing's new 747-8
aircraft,to be powered by General
Electric's GEnx jet engines, in a deal worth US$3.3
billion.
The Heads of Agreement was completed at the
Farnborough Airshow in
the United Kingdom by HH Sheikh
Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and
Chief Executive,
Emirates Airline and Group, and Alan Mulally,
Boeing
Commercial Airplanes President and Chief Executive
Officer.
The engine component of this deal is valued at
more than US$600 million,
and Sheikh Ahmed and GE
Aviation's President and CEO Scott Donnelly,
also signed
a Letter of Intent today for 45 GEnx jet engines to
power
the new aircraft ordered.
The 10 747-8F aircraft,
scheduled for delivery from 2010, will support
Emirates'
long-term growth plans by providing additional capacity
and
operational flexibility for its air cargo services.
Emirates currently
operates nine wide-bodied Boeing 747Fs
and Airbus A310Fs, and also has
eight Boeing 777Fs on its
order books.
Emirates offers more than 70 tonnes of
belly-hold cargo capacity daily from
New Zealand, with
its four services each day to Dubai and beyond, via
Australia.
Sheikh Ahmed said: "Worldwide air cargo traffic
is projected to grow by
over six percent annually for the
next two decades, tripling over
current traffic
levels.
"The 747-8 freighters that we are ordering today
will put Emirates in a
strong position to tap into the
growth of cargo traffic and reinforce
Dubai's standing as
a growing international hub for air cargo and
logistics.
This acquisition is an important building block in
our
long-term growth plans, and will help Emirates
SkyCargo reinforce its
position in the top league of
leading cargo carriers."
The range and economics of the
new 747-8Fs will provide Emirates
SkyCargo with the
flexibility to deploy the aircraft on a variety of
routes
within a range of up to 4,475 nautical miles. From
Dubai's
geo-centric location, this means the airline
could potentially operate
non-stop air cargo services,
flying with a full load, to the entire
African continent,
Europe, Middle East and most of Asia.
"We are very pleased
that Emirates has chosen the 747-8F to bring the
newest
technology to its freighter fleet," Mulally said. "The
new
747-8F has been designed to deliver the best
economics of any freighter
aircraft. With the technology
improvements brought from the 787
programme, including
new-generation engines, the 747-8 Freighter will
be
lighter and more fuel efficient while providing more
revenue-earning
cargo space. This is great news for
Emirates, and great news for the
747-8 programme."
The
new 747-8Fs offer 16 percent more cargo volume and 15
percent lower
ton-mile costs than the classic 747-400F.
Currently under development,
the new GEnx jet engines
powering these aircraft have been designed for
greater
engine durability, weight reduction and lower operating
costs.
The GEnx also provides significantly better
specific fuel consumption
and payload performance than
its predecessor the CF6, and it is already
the
best-selling engine for new wide-body
aircraft.
Dubai-based Emirates is one of the world's most
successful and
profitable international airlines. It
currently operates a fleet of 94
wide-bodied aircraft to
over 80 destinations around the globe. Over the
past
decade, Emirates has been recording double-digit growth
annually,
and it currently receives an average of one new
aircraft per month.
With the implementation of this Heads
of Agreement for the 747-8Fs,
Emirates will have more
than 100 wide-bodied passenger and freighter jets,
worth
approximately US$ 30 billion, pending
delivery.
ends