Emirates boss to reject Boeing planes
christopher jasper
Boeing has been dealt a fresh blow after Emirates said it would refuse to take delivery of 10 planes, claiming the much-delayed jets would be better turned into tins of baked beans.
Dubai airline has ordered a total of 270 new 777X aircraft from Boeing at a price of US$440 million ($629 million) each, with the first jet produced in 2019. But repeated delays caused by design changes meant Emirates was still waiting for the planes seven years later.
Emirates chairman Sir Tim Clark said the initial batch of 10 jets required so many changes to update them that they were not fit for purpose.
“We’re not taking that party, that’s all,” he said Telegram At the Farnborough International Airshow. “From our perspective, it’s up to them what they do with them.”
Clark said he understood Boeing was trying to find a home for the plane, adding: “Heinz would be interested – cans of baked beans.”
Its refusal to buy the planes would be another setback for Boeing, which has been rocked by a series of safety crises in recent years.
Clark said Emirates did not want to buy 10 planes because so many significant changes had been made to the 777X’s design that it would not be possible to bring them up to the latest standards.
The 777X has suffered numerous issues that have delayed its entry into service from 2020 to next year at the earliest.
These problems include a thrust control issue that halted test flights in 2024 and an incident in 2020 in which the plane’s nose lifted without pilot intervention, delaying the program for years.
Clark said the airline was also concerned about the 777X’s structural failure earlier than expected during ground-based stress testing of the airframe.
He added: “The modifications to the airframe have been very significant since the first flights. Note that we also had a failure in static testing.”
“I went to the first one in 2019, which was all configured except for our first-class cabins, and here we are in 2026. It’s been 7 years now, we’re not taking them.”
His comments came after it was revealed that one of the aircraft allocated to Emirates had already been scrapped.
The 400-seat aircraft was quietly “dismantled” in 2025 after lying dormant for six years at an airport near Boeing’s Seattle manufacturing hub. Airflow reported.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Stephanie Pope said changes were made to the aircraft “as the maturity of the design progressed.”
He said: “If you look at those early planes you have to weigh up how much change it would require and the benefit that would come from it.
“We always look at how much this change will cost and what the capacity of the aircraft will be and make sure we find the right solution not only for Boeing but also for our customer.”
According to analysts at Jefferies, flight tests of the 777-9, the first version of the new 777X aircraft, should be completed by the end of this year, after which the model will need to show that it can fly long distances over water with a single engine.
This will pave the way for the first aircraft to be delivered to Lufthansa before the end of 2027.
Asked when British Airways expects to receive the first of 24 planes it has ordered, chief executive Sean Doyle said simply: “Good question.”
Telegraph, London
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