Emirates' Boeing A340s!

It isn't often you see a company selling its competitor's products, especially when they are multi-million dollar airliners. However, when Emirates needed capacity quickly it was Boeing they turned to and Airbus A340-300s they acquired.

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Emirates A340-300 A6-ERS by Aviation400 1:400 Scale

The roots of this unusual set of circumstances go back to the horse-trading between Boeing and airlines at the turn of the century. Boeing was fighting hard to keep Airbus in its place and was offering unusual deals to secure airline's business. This had already included signing a sole supplier agreement with American Airlines in November 1996 and undertaking a costly price war with Airbus. This aggressive sales programme would be topped at the 1999 Paris Air Show when Boeing and Singapore Airlines announced an even more controversial deal.

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Boeing agreed to purchase Singapore's entire A340-300 'Celestar' fleet in return for an order for 10 Boeing 777-200ERs. Airbus called the deal 'an act of desperation' but there's no doubt it must have stung, especially as Boeing would go on to sell a large fleet of 777-300/300ERs to Singapore. The first 777-200ER joined the fleet in May 1997 even though Singapore was still taking delivery of its brand new A340-300s at the time!

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

Although this deal was highly unusual Singapore Airlines did have form in this department. They had, throughout their short history, often taken delivery of brand new aircraft, only to sell them not long afterwards. Aircraft to suffer this fate at SIA have included the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 (1979-1983), Airbus A300 (1980-1985) and Boeing 757-200 (1984-1990). Even most of their 747-212Bs saw only short careers of 6-12 years.

Christian Volpati (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

Singapore Airlines had received its first A340-313, 9V-SJA, in April 1996 and by the end of the year was operating 6 aircraft. A further 9 aircraft joined the fleet, with the last being 9V-SJO in July 1999. That left two aircraft undelivered and these two frames, 9V-SJP and SJQ weren't produced until 2003 when they went straight to Boeing Aircraft Holding.

Below: D-AGBM, ex-9V-SJI, awaits its next customer at Hamburg in February 2003

Peter Bakema (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

In reality it appears the deal to swap the A340s for 777s had been hatched as early as 1995 when Singapore ordered its first 777s in a huge 77 aircraft deal (34 firm orders and 45 options). That was obviously prior to the A340s even being delivered and certainly suggest's SIA's Managing Director was being a little loose with the truth on April 25, 1996 at A340 delivery when he said:

"We rate the aircraft highly in terms of economy, modernity and comfort — It is a star performer in all categories. Inspired by this we have decided to name our A340-300E the CELESTAR. We believe this aircraft will truly be a star of the skies."

Below: D-AJGP, ex-9V-SJJ, also in Feb 2003

Peter Bakema (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

A340s began to leave the SQ fleet in 2001 with 9V-SJA-C switching to Cathay Pacific. Despite the temptation to upset Airbus further Boeing clearly saw the financial implications of scrapping nearly new A340s, and instead Boeing Aircraft Holding started looking for customers for the Airbuses.

Montague Smith (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

Emirates was a much smaller airline at the turn of the century, but had expanded its fleet to include Boeing 777-200/300s and A330-200s. It was experiencing soaring customer demand on its expanding long-haul route network from Dubai. Emirates had significant orders for new aircraft in place, but was still looking for new jets. It was already an operator of the new A340-500, which it had put into service in July 2004, so the A340-300 had good fleet commonality.

This combination of factors allowed Boeing to secure nine year leases for 8 of the remaining A340-300s (two of which had served 15 month leases at Khalifa Airways already) at Emirates. The first of the 'new' A340s joined the fleet from Boeing on January 30, 2004 after ​major checks, repainting and preparations for conversion by Hamburg-based maintenance, repair and overhaul specialists Lufthansa Technik AG.

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

The fleet was configured in a three class layout of 12 First Class, 42 Business and 213 Economy seats. Service entry was from March 1st on routes from ​Dubai to Shanghai, Casablanca, Johannesburg, Perth and Osaka.

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The A340-300s would see good service with EK. In fact, some outlasted the A340-500s and survived into 2016. Four would see further service with HiFly, but the rest would be parted out. The departure of the final A340-300s and A330-200s in late 2016 left the airline with a fleet made up entirely of Airbus A380s, and the A340's nemesis, the Boeing 777-300ER.

References

1996. SIA gets a new star. Business Today
2004, January. First Airbus A340-300 for Emirates. Times of Malta
2004, January. Emirates Takes Delivery Of First Airbus A340-300. Scoop
2025. Singapore Airlines. Key.Aero
Emirates A340s. RZJets.net