Emirates is planning to operate its entire fleet of aircraft by the end of 2021, according to Reuters. While a large portion of the airline’s Boeing 777 fleet is currently flying, very few of its Airbus A380s are presently active.
Many airlines worldwide are still operating vastly reduced schedules, with most Airbus A380 fleets remaining grounded. Just under ten months ago, Emirates’ entire fleet had been grounded by a government travel ban. In the time since then, the airline has been focusing on resuming its route network. The airline has previously said that it plans to fly to every pre-pandemic destination by the summer.
Fleet recovery plans
According to Reuters, Emirates is planning to operate its entire fleet by the end of the year. This would include both the 777s and A380s in the fleet. The airline could perhaps bring its full fleet back, but with each aircraft operating less than a full-time schedule.
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Reuters cited an interview with Emirates’ president Tim Clark for the news. Clark told Reuters,
“We’re in a good place with the fleet that we have, albeit not as highly utilised as it was prior to the pandemic, to start operating again as soon as the doors open with regards to accessibility to the markets.”
How many A380s is Emirates presently flying?
Emirates returned its first Airbus A380s to the sky half a year ago. Simple Flying dug through FlightRadar24.com‘s data to find just how many of the airline’s fleet is currently flying. With the delivery of three new Airbus A380s in December, Emirates now has a fleet of 117 aircraft.
According to data from FlightRadar24.com, 17 of these aircraft are currently active, leaving 100 on the ground. All three of the airline’s latest deliveries are flying, including A6-EVN, featuring the airline’s new premium economy cabin.
The graph below shows how many flights Emirates has been operating with the Airbus A380 each day in the past six months. Initially, just four flights were operating each day, a return to Paris and a return to London. This increased slightly from August’s start before jumping again at the beginning of November when the airline used some as freighters.
Since the start of December, the number of flights rose fairly steadily, reaching a peak of 25 on January 2nd. However, since then, the numbers look to have been dropping slightly. According to Reuters, Emirates is currently operating 137 out of 160 Boeing 777 aircraft. Yesterday, Tim Clark suggested that the airline may not get its first Boeing 777X until as late as 2024.
Do you think Emirates will be able to reactivate its entire fleet by the end of the year? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!
