DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Emirates Airline has ordered a jaw-dropping total of wide-body planes, but the company’s president shuns suggestions that he wants to create the world’s biggest airline.
“I’m not bothered personally if that makes us the biggest or not,” Emirates president Tim Clark said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Aviation analysts say that, in fact, the airline’s unprecedented rate of growth would make it the world’s largest within the next decade. At last month’s Dubai Air Show, Emirates ordered 120 Airbus A350XWB jets, 11 additional A380 super-jumbos — increasing its total order to 58 — and a dozen Boeing 777-300ERs. The orders more than double its current fleet of 112 planes.
Clark, who helped establish the company in 1985 and has served as its president since, says his main aim is for the airline to keep its focus and remain an industry trendsetter in terms of quality of service.
