Does Emirates Fly Its Oldest, Worst Planes, To Africa?

An OMAAT reader sent me an interesting post he saw on Threads, and asked for my take. I think this is worth discussing, because the person’s claim might be sort of true, but not for the reason he thinks.

Traveler accuses Emirates of flying old planes to Africa

A Nigerian fashion designer named Ugo Mozie took to Threads, posting a video from his business class seat on an Emirates 777. The video is captioned as follows:

Again, for the connecting flight to Africa we get the oldest planes possible. Just listen to the captain. They don’t send these quality planes anywhere else.

In the video, you can hear the captain apologizing for the brief lack of ground power, and also for the temperature in the cabin, due to an inoperable APU. I had initially embedded the post into this story, but it seems that it was just deleted, after I published, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

Of course I’m not a fan of generalizing entire continents (Egypt and South Africa are kind of different in every way), but I see where he’s coming from.

For that matter, he’s hardly the first person to accuse airlines of discriminating against African countries in terms of the planes they fly there. In the past, we’ve even seen Ghana and Nigeria threaten airlines over the types of aircraft they fly to those countries.

Is Emirates really flying older planes to Africa, or…?

So the guy sort of has a point, but not necessarily for the reason he thinks.

First of all, the plane’s broken APU and ground power issues were just a really unlucky coincidence. Broken APUs happen, but it’s deferrable maintenance, and I guarantee you that no one at Emirates is saying “yeah, send the plane with the broken APU to Lagos.” So the core of his complaint has nothing to do with the age of the aircraft, but rather, just with bad luck.

Now, do a lot of destinations in West Africa and Central Africa get Emirates’ 777s with old interiors? Yes, that is true. Emirates has a pretty straightforward fleet, consisting almost exclusively of 777s and A380s (the airline is also now getting A350s, but there aren’t many flying yet).

Many African airports are limited to the 777, due to airport infrastructure, and also due to lack of demand. Emirates does fly A380s to some destinations in Africa, ranging from Cairo, to Casablanca, to Johannesburg.

Now, Emirates is in the process of updating its 777s with new interiors, including adding a new business class and premium economy. We’re seeing all kinds of planes be reconfigured, including some of Emirates’ older 777s. That’s an important distinction, as there’s a difference between which plane is actually old, and which plane looks old from the inside. Just ask Delta, which is famous for making old AF planes look new (and I’m not talking about Air France).

So, why are destinations in West Africa and Central Africa not among the first to get the reconfigured 777s? It comes down to the competitive landscape.

As any for-profit airline would want to do, you need to offer your best product in the most competitive markets first, where there’s more potential market share to gain. It’s not surprising that flights to and from the United States, Europe, and the South Pacific, have been among the first to get these new products, including premium economy, which has become such a popular cabin in recent years.

For example, Europe to Australia is a huge market for Emirates, and there’s a ton of competition. Emirates has to compete with other Gulf carriers, and also with top notch Asian carriers, like Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, etc. That’s on top of British Airways and Qantas, which have a loyal following on each end of the journey.

The same is true for flights to and from the United States. The Gulf carriers have really competitive products, there are all kinds of connecting options through Europe, and US airlines have a loyal customer base due to their frequent flyer programs.

The reality is that the passenger flow for flights to and from parts of Africa work very differently. The competitive landscape just isn’t as strong. Many markets have very little competition, many countries in the region don’t have national airlines, geography makes competition a little more fragmented (you’re not going to fly a Gulf carrier from Lagos to London), etc.

All of these routes will eventually get updated products, but it’ll take some patience. By the way, it’s important to mention that it’s not just some Africa routes that generally get Emirates’ older jets. Emirates’ fifth freedom US flights from New York to Milan and Newark to Athens have historically received the oldest variants of the respective jets (A380s and 777s). That’s slowly starting to change, but up until recently, was consistently the case.

Bottom line

I’ve heard people accuse Emirates of flying its older and more run down planes to Africa more than once, so I figured it was worth a post. Yes, it’s not untrue that Emirates operates a lot of routes to Africa with its older aircraft.

However, that’s just a function of the competitive landscape, and of needing to prioritize newly reconfigured aircraft in markets with stronger competition. If an Emirates plane has some sort of mechanical issue in Dubai, that’s not because of what the interior of the plane looks like, but instead, it’s just bad luck.