On the first day of the Dubai Airshow, Emirates announced an order for 65 Boeing 777X aircraft, valued at 38 billion dollars. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2027 and also include 130 GE9X engines from General Electric. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the director of Emirates, emphasized that this long-term commitment will support hundreds of thousands of jobs in the manufacturing sector.
Emirates, controlled by the Dubai government, is already the largest customer of the Boeing 777, with a total of 270 orders. The company has expressed dissatisfaction with the repeated delays in the delivery of the 777X model, which have been postponed from 2025 to 2026. Emirates, the most profitable airline in the world, recently reported a semi-annual profit of 2.9 billion dollars, despite the challenges Boeing is facing, including safety issues and delivery delays. The recent order includes options for larger versions of the 777X model, which are still in development.