Emirates to receive uperjumbos this fiscal year

With 21 Airbus A380s now in service, Emirates is looking to add 10 more superjumbos to its fleet in the current financial year ending March 31, according to a senior Emirates executive. "The plan is to add 10 additional A380s in this financial year," Thierry Antinori, the airline's executive vice-president of passenger sales worldwide, told Gulf News in an interview. Emirates has been grappling with the problem of wing cracks in its A380 jets. It was forced to ground almost its entire A380 fleet due to the problem. Asked about the status of the grounded A380s, Antinori said: "The planes are still flying. While most of the aircraft are back in operation now, there are still a couple of them on the ground for inspection. We have absolutely no issue regarding safety." He added that the carrier is currently conducting checks on the wings. "We have checked some planes and some are being checked now. And for the time being, we're able to operate with our mainline fleet, including 777, A330, A340 fleet, for the flights that were supposed to have been done by the A380s put on the ground," he said. "We will have a little fewer A380s in the air for the next few weeks." Continuing its aggressive growth, Emirates has 171 planes at present, with another 232 on order worth $84 billion at list prices (Dh308.49 billion). The airline has launched seven new routes this year so far and four more will be launched by the end of the year, according to Antinori. "We will also be increasing frequencies on some existing routes such as to Madrid, Glasgow, Malpensa, Venice and so on," he said. Emirates is due to declare its financial results for the year ended March 31, and expects a decline in profits caused by high fuel prices, according to Antinori The fuel price last fiscal was very high for Emirates. It was an increase of our fuel bill by $1.6 billion. It directly impacted the bottomline of the company, which means that our profit will be down for the financial year ended March 31 in comparison with the record year 2010-2011," he said. The carbon tax levied by the European Union (EU) on January 1 on all airlines using European airspace has created a stir in the aviation industry. While many carriers, such as Etihad Airways, have passed on this additional cost to passengers, Emirates has not done so yet. "We are not transferring that to our customers for the time being. We continue to observe the situation, which, unfortunately, is not evolving positively. And if nothing happens, we will have no other choice but to pass it on to customers," Antinori said. "This tax is not a tax helping the airline industry. We have little hope with the situation, but we won't be able to wait forever."