The 
Dubai Airshow 2025 ran from Monday to Friday of last week, with a whole host of major news stories emerging between November 17 and 21. Among the key players on this front was Dubai-based UAE flag carrier 
Emirates, which announced details pertaining to aspects of its operations that included aircraft orders, passenger experience, aircraft maintenance, and a whole lot more across what proved to be a busy week.
With the dust having now settled on the airshow, it is worth revisiting the main talking points from Emirates’ activities at the 2025 Dubai Airshow, with this summary serving as a useful ‘all-in-one’ guide to what the carrier got up to last week. We will start with the biggest talking points of them all: aircraft orders.
Major Widebody Orders
Emirates wasted no time in making headlines at this year’s Dubai Airshow, announcing on the first day that it had put pen to paper with 
Boeing on a deal for another 65 examples of the 777-9 widebody twinjet from the US planemaker’s upcoming 777X family. It was also at this point that Emirates revealed that it was pushing Boeing to conduct a feasibility study into a potential larger 777-10 model, as further detailed in the video below.
Later in the week, the carrier further boosted its widebody order book by shaking hands with Airbus on a deal for another eight examples of the A350-900 in an agreement that, based on list prices, was valued in the region of $3.4 billion. These aircraft are set to be delivered in 2031, with their engines being examples of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB84 model. Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates’ Chair and CEO, welcomed the deal, saying that:
“Together with the additional Boeing 777-9 order (…), Emirates now has a total of 375 units of the latest widebody aircraft on its orderbook. This is a massive investment in our future.”
Passenger Experience Upgrades & Technical Growth
Emirates’ other major announcement on the first day of the 2025 Dubai Airshow related to passenger experience, with the Dubai-based UAE flag carrier committing to upgrading its in-flight connectivity provisions with the installation of high-speed Starlink WiFi. The service went live yesterday, and Emirates will eventually equip 232 jets with the technology, starting with the Boeing 777 before carrying out a fleet-wide rollout later on, in 2027.
During the 2025 Dubai Airshow, the revered Middle Eastern airline also unveiled its plans for the next phase of its ongoing fleet retrofit program. This will see another 111 of its widebody airliners slated to receive new cabins, with this figure split between 60 examples of the Airbus A380 and 51 jets from the Boeing 777 family. Airbus, Safran, Recaro, Panasonic, Starlink, and UUDS are among the partners that it has teamed up with on this.
As the week went on, the focus of Emirates’ announcements switched to more technical matters, such as the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that it penned with Safran “to establish a manufacturing and seat assembly facility in Dubai.” Elsewhere, it signed similar deals with ENOC to explore SAF supply and Rolls-Royce to bring A380 engine maintenance in-house, while also receiving GCAA approval for major design modifications.
As It Happened: Dubai Airshow 2025
Keep up with the latest from on the ground at the 2025 edition of the Dubai Airshow!
Growth In Commercial Partnerships & Other Headlines
Emirates also had a busy week when it came to boosting its commercial partnerships. Among the most notable developments on this front was the extension of its relationship with Air Canada to 2032, with South African Airways also being the subject of a similar deal last week. Meanwhile, the UAE flag carrier also used the show as a chance to showcase its partnership with flydubai, which serves five million codeshare passengers every year.
Emirates’ other headlines at the show included the debut flypast for its Airbus A350-900 as part of an airborne fleet showcase, and the receipt of its eighth consecutive ULTRAs ‘Best Airline in the World’ award. As the week came to a close, the airline also signed deals to explore drone deliveries and AI solutions, before bringing the curtain down by announcing a range of strategic investments with which it hopes to further boost its growth.
