Christopher Jasper
Boeing has been dealt a fresh blow after Emirates said it would refuse to take delivery of 10 aircraft, claiming that the much-delayed jets would be better off being turned into baked bean tins.
The Dubai airline has ordered a total of 270 new 777X planes from Boeing at $US440 million ($629 million) apiece, with the first jet built in 2019. But repeated delays stemming from design modifications has meant Emirates is still waiting for the planes seven years later.
Sir Tim Clark, the president of Emirates, said the initial batch of 10 of the jets required such a patchwork of changes to update them that they were not fit for purpose.
“We’re not taking that batch and that’s it,” he told The Telegraph at the Farnborough International Airshow. “As far as we’re concerned, what they do with them is up to them.”
Clark said he understood that Boeing had been trying to find a home for the aircraft, before adding: “Heinz would be interested – baked bean cans.”
His refusal to take the planes will serve as a new setback to Boeing, which has been rocked by a string of safety crises in recent years.
Clark said Emirates was unwilling to take the 10 aircraft because the design of the 777X had undergone so many significant changes that bringing them up to the latest standard would not be feasible.
The 777X has suffered numerous problems that have pushed back entry into service from 2020 to next year at the earliest.
Those issues have included a thrust control issue that halted test flights in 2024 and an incident in 2020 that saw an aircraft’s nose pitch up without pilot input, delaying the programme by years.
Clark said the airline was also concerned by the earlier-than-expected structural failure of a 777X during a ground-based stress test of the airframe.
He added: “The modifications for the airframe have been so significant since the early flights. And don’t forget we had a static-test failure as well.”
He added: “I went on the first one in 2019, which was fully configured except for our first-class cabins, and here we are in 2026. It’s now seven years on. We’re not taking them.”
His comments came after it emerged one of the planes earmarked for Emirates had already been scrapped.
The 400-seat plane was quietly “disassembled” in 2025 after sitting dormant for six years on an airfield close to Boeing’s Seattle manufacturing centre, The Air Current reported.
Stephanie Pope, the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said changes were made to the aircraft “as the maturity of the design progresses”.
She said: “If you look at those early airplanes, you’ve then got to weigh how much change it’s going to take and the benefit from that.
“We are always looking at how much that change is going to cost and what will be the capability of the airplane, and making sure we’re getting the right solution not only for Boeing, but for our customer.”
Flight tests on the 777-9, the first version of the new 777X plane, should be completed by the end of this year, after which the model will need to show it is capable of flying for long distances over water on a single engine, according to analysts at Jefferies.
That should pave the way for the first aircraft to be delivered to Lufthansa before the end of 2027.
Asked when British Airways expected to receive the first of 24 planes it has on order, Sean Doyle, its chief executive, said simply: “Good question.”
Telegraph, London
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