UAE airlines break records, spend big at airshow

Dubai’s Emirates airline set a new record on the first day of the Dubai Airshow with the announcement it was placing orders worth an estimated $99bn. Emirates will purchase 250 Boeing 777Xs (comprising 35 Boeing 777-8Xs and 115 Boeing 777-9Xs), plus 50 purchase rights, an order valued at $76bn – making it the single largest aircraft order by value in the history of US commercial aviation. In a separate deal worth $23bn, Emirates, which is chaired by Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum (uncle of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum), ordered 50 Airbus A380 aircraft.