Dubai-based Emirates is poised to expand its fleet of dedicated Boeing 777F freighters with a formal announcement expected “within weeks” according to sources close to the airline. The carrier, along with its Emirates SkyCargo freight division, is enjoying an upsurge in demand for its current capacity and is planning for further growth in the coming years.
The possibility that Emirates would be ordering additional freighters was first reported by Reuters on October 16, 2024. Sources close to the matter said that the airline was partly behind an order for 11 new Boeing 777Fs for undisclosed customers included in Boeing’s orders and deliveries report for September 2024, as reported by AeroTime. Boeing has so far refused to identify the customer or customers for these new freighters at the time of writing.
Emirates already operates 12 Boeing 777F cargo aircraft as part of its SkyCargo operation with an average age of eight years. These are currently supplemented using four Boeing 747-400 freighters that the carrier wet leases from other operators.
Emirates is currently the largest operator of the Boeing 777 family of aircraft with 124 passenger variants in service (plus the 12 freighters). It is also the launch customer for Boeing’s 777X, the next-generation widebody that is currently under development but is yet to be certified. Earlier in October 2024, the planemaker announced that due to well-publicized ongoing challenges, certification of the type was being pushed back to 2026.
Emirates Airline President Tim Clark has already been vocal in declaring his frustration at the further delay to the program upon which the carrier has based a significant degree of its future long-haul flying program around. But with few other options on the table at present, Emirates has little choice but to sit and wait for the new planes to arrive.
As passenger airlines have bounced back since the pandemic, significantly more air cargo is being carried within the underfloor space of passenger aircraft. Some cargo-only airlines have suffered because of this, while others (particularly those that are affiliated with passenger airlines such as Emirates SkyCargo, Qatar Cargo, and Etihad Cargo) have all been seeing demand for their freight-only services rise.
Increasing the global availability of cargo-only aircraft is being hampered by the lack of available new airframes and will be for several years as manufacturers struggle to keep up with demand. This is leading carriers such as Emirates to use leased-in equipment, with ACMI (Air, Crew, Maintenance, Insurance) contracts becoming ever more prevalent in the air freight industry.