Emirates has agreed to buy five Airbus A380 superjumbos from a Guernsey-registered asset management company for $200 million as the airline grapples with years-long delivery delays of new airplanes, especially the troubled Boeing 777X.
Doric Nimrod Air Two acquired seven doubledeck Airbus A380s from October 2011 and entered into lease agreements with the Dubai-based carrier which has operated them ever since.
The asset management company sold the first two of these seven airframes to Emirates at the end of their 12-year leases in 2023, and on Wednesday, Doric Nimrod said it had come to an agreement with Emirates to sell the remaining five A380s when their leases expire between October and November 2024.
Each airframe will be sold for around $40 million, meaning that Emirates has agreed to pay $200 million to acquire all five of the superjumbos.
All five of the A380s that are being fully acquired by Emirates are around 12 years old, meaning that they have at least eight years left of their standard 20-year lifecycle.
Leasing aircraft from asset management companies is a fairly common practice within the airline industry and for all intents and purposes there is very little to distinguish a leased aircraft from one that is already outright owned by an airline.
In the case of Emirates’ A380 fleet, it remains to be seen what the airline would have done with these airframes if Airbus had chosen to keep the superjumbo project alive because Emirates has traditionally sought to maintain a fairly young fleet.
As it turns out, Airbus discontinued the manufacture of new A380s in December 2021, when Emirates took delivery of the last superjumbo ever assembled.
Even with numerous delivery delays for new jets, Emirates views the A380 as its flagship aircraft and wants to keep the superjumbo flying for as long as possible. As it stands, Emirates doesn’t plan to stop flying the A380 altogether until around 2041, although that timeframe will pose some challenges.
In particular, spare parts are going to become increasingly difficult to come by. In fact, one of the five aircraft purchased by Emirates in this latest deal has been in storage since July 2020 and it could turn out that the airline uses this aircraft for spare parts for its active A380s.
Eventually, Emirates will replace its A380s with smaller Airbus A350-900s and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The airline is also waiting for the Boeing 777X aircraft to be certified, although yet another problem recently identified with the plane could delay initial deliveries of this eagerly anticipated new aircraft still further.
All five of the A380s that are being fully acquired by Emirates are around 12 years old, meaning that they have at least eight years left of their standard 10-year lifecycle? The math does not add up.
Apologies. This was a typo… Should have read ’20’.