Dubai Air Show Scoops Now Tip Big A380

After a crescendo of plausible stories about large scale ordering of Boeing 777-X series jets at the Dubai Air Show, the media ‘scoops’ are now tipping substantial orders (or letters of intent maybe) for Airbus A380s and A350s.

Whether these reports are as well informed as they seem should be known very soon, with the opening of the show later today.

However the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, has appeared in Dubai, direct from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka, giving interviews about how the ‘big’ orders Airbus will announced at Dubai 2013 will be good for his country as a major supplier of wings and engines to that consortium.

The A380 rumours began a few days ago, based on very clear hints from Emirates that it needed even more than the 90 of the large jets it has ordered, with close to 40 of them already in service.

The most precise story on this appeared this Sunday morning Australian time on Bloomberg, specifying that talks were underway for an order for an additional 50 A380s for Emirates , following weeks of stories, clearly not originating from Airbus, that the end of the A380 was nigh.

There are also reports appearing that Etihad will simultaneously but at a separate media conference, announce an order for around 30 Boeing 777-X ‘Super Twins’ when Emirates makes its much previewed order for anything from 50 to 175 of the larger and even more capable versions of the current 777 models.

However Etihad is said to have scheduled a second later media conference today to announce plans to buy up to 50 Airbus A350 series jets.

It needs to be kept in mind none of the above may occur. Air Shows are rumour generators. The last time Plane Talking referred to informed international sources it was about reports that the five Singapore Airlines A345s being withdrawn from ultra long range flights to America were going to Aerolineas Argentinas via an Airbus repurchase.

That report has since been withdrawn. And Aerolineas Argentinas is to quit Australia, ruining Plane Talking’s idle thought that it would be a good jet for Buenos Aires-Sydney. Just in case readers hear the mutterings about the jets going to Qantas, that is officially untrue. They are obviously destined for REX. The Wagga Wagga-Sydney route is in for a big surprise!

With another nine or more hours to go before show becomes tell in Dubai, expect more ‘scoops’ to come out. They will contain orders or MoUs that will come true. But we won’t know which ones are true until later today, or even later in this week.