Emirates airline boss sees positive progress at troubled Boeing

The head of the world's largest international airline, Dubai's Emirates, said on Sunday there were positive signs of progress at Boeing, having previously voiced frustration over delays in delivery of new jets from the planemaker.

Emirates President Tim Clark said he was seeing a greater degree of determination from Boeing to resolve its many issues under a recently appointed CEO, and management had indicated cautious optimism over its recovery in discussion with Emirates.

Boeing is trying to stabilize and ramp up production after a quality crisis and then labour strike shuttered production of most of its aircraft last year.

Boeing is also awaiting certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for its 777X wide-body plane, of which Emirates has 205 on order. Deliveries of the 777X are set to start in 2026, six years behind schedule.

Emirates has been told it could receive its first 777X any time between the second half of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027, Clark said, adding that he was sensing a more positive tone from Boeing on the plane's progress.

Boeing and European planemaker Airbus are months and years behind on new plane deliveries, frustrating airlines that want to upgrade to more fuel-efficient aircraft and launch new services.

Speaking at a news briefing on the sidelines of an IATA airline summit, Clark said the industry was still facing chronic aerospace supply problems and challenged planemakers to take responsibility.

"I am pretty tired of seeing the hand-wringing about the supply chain: you (manufacturers) are the supply chain," Clark said.

Last week, sources told Reuters that Airbus has been warning airlines it faces another three years of delivery delays in working through a backlog of supply-chain problems.

Clark said the pandemic was no longer an acceptable excuse.

"It's a highly consolidated industry ... I don't think they've managed to strip out the inefficiencies of the smaller units they brought together," he said of the largest aerospace firms.

TARIFF IMPACT

Emirates has not yet seen a shift in demand patterns as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff war, Clark told an annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Clark said he expected U.S. manufacturer GE Aerospace, which makes engines for some of Emirates' planes, to absorb a lot of the impact from tariffs into its own margins.

GE is Emirates' main engine supplier. It has said that it is passing along tariff costs to customers in the form of a surcharge.

Clark has previously expressed frustration with its other engine supplier, Britain's Rolls-Royce, because some engine models have struggled with maintenance problems when operating in the world's hottest climates.

On Sunday, Clark said opportunities still exist in the Gulf region for Rolls-Royce if it can deliver the required performance.

He left open whether a potential deal for Rolls-powered Airbus A350-1000 jets, which faltered over the durability of their engines at the Dubai Airshow in 2023, would be ready in time for the next edition in November this year.

"I am not sure about that," he told reporters.