Emirates Airlines CEO Tim Clark said in Seattle that his airline would like to purchase another 40 A380s but that its current hub in Dubai cannot hold that many.

I’ll note that Dubai has plenty of space to expand, if necessary.  More to the point, what does an airline such as Emirates do with its existing 90 A380s (23 delivered, 67 still on order) and how does it deploy them to earn money?

The truth is that every other airline in the world competing with Emirates isn’t going to fail and certainly isn’t going to not try to compete with Emirates.  In way, Emirates brooksmanship with its A380 orders is a bit like putting a match to the competitive flame that the industry has so carefully managed with capacity for the past 4 years.

An additional 40 more A380s leading to an ultimate total of 120 A380 aircraft with a combined seat capacity of 60,000+ seats is not sustainable and the market demand doesn’t reflect this as sustainable.

Filed under: Airline Fleets by ajax