Emirates Airline is demanding guarantees from Airbus that A380 production will continue in the long term before committing to another major order for the aircraft. Emirates president Tim Clark said that “the ownership here is concerned about continuation.” He added that “they need some copper-bottom guarantees that if we do buy some more, then the line will be continued for a minimum period of years and that they are fully aware of the consequences of cancellation and leaving us high and dry.” Clark said the airline wants Airbus to commit to continuing the A380 production for at least 10 years. Airbus currently has a backlog of 100 A380s remaining to be delivered, 42 of which are for Emirates. A large proportion of the remaining 58 aircraft looks shaky at best. <br/>
unaligned
Rolls-Royce has engaged in talks with Emirates to power its fleet of 40 Boeing 787-10s the carrier announced Sunday in a deal worth US$15.1b in list prices. “Emirates has not yet made an engine selection. We will be working closely with Emirates on that,” John Kelly, Rolls-Royce’s VP Customers for the Middle East, said Monday, adding that Rolls-Royce has “engaged” in talks already with the airline on that. Kelly, however, did not give any time frame for a decision to materialise. Asked if Rolls-Royce was hopeful of bagging the order, he said: “It’s completely in their [Emirates] hands.” The engine manufacturer has a current agreement to power 52 of the Emirates’ A380s besides 5 of the 777-200s, according to Kelly. “We have delivered 10 of the 52 A380s already,” he said. <br/>
Emirates Airline this week kicked off the Dubai Air Show by unveiling the luxurious private cabins it will put on its Boeing 777 aircraft. The result is an elegant, hotel-style space designed to meet needs most passengers do not even know they have. But like SIA, which unveiled its own US$850m first-class revamp earlier this month, Emirates has decided that it needs to provide such 6-star luxury to fewer passengers than in the past. The number of first-class suites on Emirates’ 777s will fall from 8 to 6 as a result of the revamp. When the concept is extended to its superjumbo A380s, the number of private cabins will go down from 14 to 11. Tim Clark, Emirates president, insists that the reduction in seats first-class does not signal the demise of elite travel on his airline. <br/>
Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines is considering setting up a subsidiary in Ukraine and may also increase its order for Airbus A321neos, according to Emre Pekesen, sales and network planning director at the carrier. Management have held talks with Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry in Kiev about the possible joint venture, which would be majority owned by Ukrainian investors and would fly under a Ukrainian operating license. Pegasus already runs one such joint venture, Air Manas, formerly branded Pegasus Asia, in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan. “Ukraine is really an under-served market. Only one carrier is very active, that’s UIA [Ukraine International Airlines] … It’s a huge country, the population is huge, and it’s in the middle of [a region with] expanding GDPs, said Pekesen. <br/>