With the Dubai Air Show under way, there has been a flurry of orders as Persian Gulf airlines swoop in to buy aircraft.
Lets start with the big news of the Boeing 777X formally launching. With a splash of maroon paint, and a new design, you get these…
Boeing 777Xs in formation flight, 777-9X in the foreground, 777-8X in the background. Rendering, The Boeing Company
Lets look at the hard numbers.
The 777-8X will carry 350 passengers with a range of 9,300 nautical miles (17,220 km), whilst the 777-9X will carry 400 passengers s with a range of 8,200 nautical miles (15,185 km),
The 777X is scheduled to enter service in 2020, with a formal name to be decided.
Interestingly, the plane will have two different wingspans – 212 feet 9 inches (64.8 meters) on the ground, whilst 233 feet 5 inches (71.1 meters) in flight. This will be achieved using a folding wing-tip.
Both will be powered be the General Electric GE9X engine.
And it seems airlines like the 777X. First out of the gate was Lufthansa some weeks ago (for 34 aircraft – making them their launch carrier), but this being the Dubai Airshow, the local airlines are opening up their chequebooks
- Emirates are off a show stealing 150 777Xs and placing 50 purchase rights.
- Etihad will be ordering 25 777Xs, made up of seventeen 777-9Xs and eight 777-8Xs
- Qatar Airways have signed a Letter of Intent for 50 777X aircraft
But that’s not all – not by a long shot. Going through the orders today, there is some serious money being splashed around
- Emirates seems to be buying a lot more capacity with an order for 50 Airbus A380s – taking them to a global fleet of 140 A380s.
- Etihad will be adding to its 787 fleet, with orders for 30 787-10X aircraft and options for 12. The airline will also be adding a single 777 freighter to its fleet too. Meanwhile it is expanding its Airbus fleet with orders for 40 A350-900s, ten A350-1000s, one A330-200F, 26 A321neo’s and 10 A320neo’s
- Flydubai will be ordering order 100 737-MAX 8 aircraft, was well as 11 737-800s
- Qatar Airways has placed a firm order for five new Airbus A330-200 Freighter, with options for eight more
There is an interesting bit of news that deserves its own article regarding Etihad Regional, so I’m holding that for later. Suffice to say, I’d reckon there are more orders to be signed at the Dubai Airshow this week…
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The negineer in me would really like to see how they are going to do the wing extensions. Slide out from an internal pocket? Hard to do these things when you are flying 500 miles and hour!
I’m interested how Boeing can do this too – be it folding tips, slide out and when the action happens (I would suggest post pushback so the plane can fit in the gate).
Lots of questions yet to be answered over the 777X