Dubai-based airline, Emirates, have placed an order for 50 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft at the Dubai Airshow (#DXB11). It is Boeing’s largest single order to date with a value (at list prices) of over $18 billion.
This week Boeing started production of the 1,000th 777 wide-body twin-jet, which is also destined for the middle-eastern carrier who is the largest customer for the 777. Emirates currently has 94 examples of the type in its fleet and is waiting on 41 unfulfilled orders, this order will bring the 777 fleet to 185.
This order also breaks the record for the most 777s ordered in a single year, 182 for 2011, compared to the previous record of 154 back in 2005. Emirates contributed to that record too; at the Dubai Airshow in 2005 they placed an order for 42 777s. 5 years later the airline ordered 30 more at the 2010 Farnborough Airshow .
Dubai-based Emirates already has a very impressive order list including a firm commitment to 90 Airbus A380 “superjumbo” airliners, of which 17 have been delivered. The airline has also ordered 70 examples of Airbus’s new “Extra Widebody” A350s.
Emirates has their home base at the new Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, which currently has a single runway but four more are planned. It is hoped that the airport has enough capacity for all of these large, long-haul widebody aircraft, now and as Emirates grows further.