‘Not yet ready’: Emirates needs to make a decision on its Boeing 787 Dreamliner order
November 25, 2025
Emirates is fast approaching the point where it must finally decide what to do with its long-delayed Boeing 787 order. After years of variant switching and order reshaping, the airline now faces pressure to lock in aircraft types as Boeing firms up production slots for the latter half of the decade.
Speaking to AGN on the sidelines of the Dubai Airshow, Emirates Chief Operations Officer Adel Al Redha acknowledged that a firm decision is overdue.
“A decision needs to be made,” he said, “but we are not yet ready for that decision.”
While Boeing waits for clarity, Emirates continues to keep its options deliberately open.
The airline’s history with the 787 has been unusually turbulent. The original 787-10 order was swapped for 787-9s in 2019, then reshaped again into a mix of 787-8s and 787-10s in 2023. Recent announcements have simply referred to “30 Boeing 787s,” without specifying which variant will actually be delivered.
Asked why the order has shifted so many times, Al Redha pointed to the programme’s early difficulties. “When we made the decision, there were some hold-backs with the programme,” he said, adding that delivery delays “made us push it” and reconsider which models actually suited Emirates’ operation.
What each Boeing 787 variant offers Emirates’ network
Al Redha was clear that the different variants each serve very different purposes.
“Each of the 787 variants offers something different,” he told AGN. “The eight is the smaller version and more of a point-to-point aircraft, the nine gives you range and flexibility, and the ten gives you more capacity.”
However, he also suggested that the smallest model (787-8) has become less useful in the current environment, hinting that Emirates’ post-pandemic traffic profile may have outgrown the aircraft. During the airshow, Emirates encouraged Boeing to pursue a larger 777-10 aircraft to cater to its future needs.
Crucially, Al Redha stressed that Emirates is “not in a hurry” because strong demand means the airline does not urgently need the Dreamliner to plug capacity gaps. This is a very different context from when the 787 was first ordered.
How Emirates is growing without the Dreamliner
In the meantime, Emirates is expanding without the 787 entirely. Airbus A380s stored during the pandemic are being reactivated at pace. “We are phasing them into the fleet progressively,” Al Redha said, and Emirates expects “all of the 116 aircraft in service by the end of next year.”
The carrier is also taking delivery of the A350-900, though Al Redha admitted that the airline should have had more delivered than it has right now, and that production is not ramping up quickly. Emirates ordered a handful of additional A350-900s at the airshow, but held off from the larger A350-1000 over concerns with engine reliability.
Even so, the airline has no interest in turning to the A330neo, despite Etihad ordering the type partly to secure early slots.
“We looked at the aircraft … it is performing well,” he said, “but we have the A350-900s, seventy-three of them. Why would we want to take it?”
Instead, the airline doubled down on capacity at the top end of the market with a fresh 777X order. As Al Redha put it, new 777-9s will “replace the 777-300ERs and some A380s,” forming the backbone of future growth.
When will Emirates confirm its Boeing 787 fleet plan?
Although the airline is not rushing, Al Redha accepts that the clock is ticking. Boeing needs confirmation of the variant mix to plan the production line.
“Once you make an order, they will be part of their plan,” he said, adding that Emirates will soon need to determine “either one of these types” for the final configuration.
For now, Emirates is keeping its options open. The Dreamliner will join the fleet, but whether Emirates chooses the -9, the -10, or a mix remains undecided. As Al Redha concluded, “Yes, a decision needs to be made, but we are not in a hurry to make that decision now.”
