Flight Friday: The Airlines Making The Biggest Moves At Dubai Airshow

With the fallout of orders from the recent Dubai Airshow, this week's Flight Friday looks at those operators who ordered more than 30 aircraft at the show.

Emirates ordered 110 aircraft at the show (35 Boeing 777-8s, 55 777-9s, five 787s, and 15 Airbus A350-900s), and in terms of equivalent 2019 monthly utilization, Emirates in October 2023 was operating a little over 90% of October 2019 flights. With their business model of connecting the globe, it has taken time for Emirates to return to 2019 levels as international travel demand was depressed post-pandemic..

SunExpress placed orders with Boeing for 45 MAX aircraft, with a further five on option. Since April 2022, SunExpress has consistently been above equivalent 2019 utilization. The Turkish market, as a whole, has rebounded well post-pandemic. With the favorable exchange rate for tourists, Turkey has been an affordable vacation destination for many visitors, which require flights in/out of the country.

Ethiopian come next in the list having ordered 31 Boeing aircraft (20 737-8s and 11 787-9s) and placing options for another 36 Boeing aircraft. Ethiopian’s utilization returned to consistent equivalent 2019 utilization at the beginning of 2021 and has continued to grow. In October 2023, it operated 85% more flights than in October 2019. Whilst the number is high, in October 2019, Ethiopian were still feeling the effects of the MAX grounding that occurred in the previous March, so it is a little difficult to truly compare numbers.

AirBaltic ordered 30 A220s and flydubai ordered 30 737-9s. AirBaltic—which has been affected by some of the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) engine issues, alongside operating flights for other operators—returned to 2019 levels as of April 2023. Flydubai have been at equivalent 2019 levels or above since the end of the 2022 first quarter.

This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization tool.