Emirates to idle ten percent of its fleet for three months

Emirates will idle ten percent of its fleet for almost three months, crimping sales, as runway repairs curtail capacity at its Dubai International hub, reports Bloomberg.

President Tim Clark said: “The disruption has an impact on revenue and we have to manage that. “We will try to fit all that revenue on the remaining services.”

He added that operations should return to normal by August, when travel should increase with the Eid holiday, he said.

Analyst Saj Ahmad commented: “As the biggest operator at Dubai International, it comes as little surprise that Emirates would be hit hardest by the runway works this summer. Of course that will dent overall passenger traffic for 2014, but in the grand scheme of things, this blip will be just that.”

“Emirates has the benefit of being the biggest 777-300ER and A380 operator so it can bump up capacity on routes where smaller A340s and A330s and 777-200ERs are deployed to ensure that the capacity and frequency of flights is only minimally affected and for them to put these plans in place ahead of schedule further demonstrates the management acumen to ensure that revenues are not hit.”

Ahmad concluded: “There is still the possibility that some flights could accompany Emirates operations at Al Maktoum International Airport too where its freighter operations will now be based - to rule out anything that Emirates does at this stage is premature.”