How Many Planes Does Emirates Have? The 2026 Fleet, and Why None of Them Is Small

Emirates has 277 planes. That is the count in the Emirates Group annual report for March 31, 2026: 264 passenger jets and 13 Boeing 777 freighters.

Every one of them is a widebody. Emirates flies no narrowbody jets and no regional jets at all, so its whole fleet is built around two big long-haul types, the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 777.

How Many Planes Does Emirates Have?

277, as of March 31, 2026, the end of Emirates’ financial year. The count covers every aircraft the airline owns or leases: 190 owned and 87 leased.

It leaves out the 367 aircraft on firm order. A year earlier, on March 31, 2025, the same count was 260, so the fleet grew by 17 aircraft in twelve months.

It has grown again since. In its half-year results on November 5, 2026, Emirates said it took nine more A350s and five more 777 freighters between April and September. It did not publish a new total.

The Emirates fleet, type by type

Emirates publishes its full fleet in the fleet information table of its annual report. This is the table for March 31, 2026, with what it has on order.

Aircraft	In fleet	Owned	Leased	On order
Airbus A380-800	116	78	38	0
Boeing 777-300ER	119	77	42	0
Boeing 777-200LR	10	7	3	0
Airbus A350-900	19	19	0	54
Passenger fleet	264	181	83
Boeing 777 freighter	13	9	4	8
Boeing 777X	0			270
Boeing 787	0			35
Whole fleet	277	190	87	367

The Boeing 777-300ER and the Airbus A380 are the airline. Together they make up 235 of the 277 aircraft, almost 85% of the fleet.

Count the 777 family as one and it is the biggest: 142 aircraft, made up of 119 777-300ERs, 10 777-200LRs and 13 freighters. The annual report says Emirates is the world’s largest 777 operator, and that the 777 flew 47% of its seat capacity and carried more than half of its passengers in 2025-26.

The A380 carried 43% of Emirates’ passengers across 53 destinations. Emirates holds 116 of the 251 A380s ever delivered, which is why it is the airline most people picture when they think of the airlines still flying the A380.

The newcomer is the Airbus A350-900. Emirates took 15 of them in 2025-26, taking the type from 4 to 19, and they carried 2.1 million passengers, about 4% of the total.

The fleet is young for its size. Its average age was 10.8 years on March 31, 2026, against an industry average of 15.1 years at the end of 2025, according to the annual report.

Why the numbers differ

Search this question and you will see 260, “over 250”, 273 and 277. Most of them were right on some date. They are counting different things, or counting at a different time.

An old date

260 is Emirates’ own count for March 31, 2025. Since then it has taken 15 A350s and 5 freighters in 2025-26, then 9 more A350s and 5 more freighters by September 30, 2026.

Some aircraft also left. The annual report says two older freighters were retired in 2025-26, and the 777-300ER count fell by one in the year Emirates began converting its first 777-300ER into a freighter.

Passenger jets or the whole fleet

Wikipedia’s Emirates fleet table gives 273 passenger aircraft as of October 2026: 30 A350s, 116 A380s, 10 777-200LRs and 117 777-300ERs. It lists the freighters separately, under Emirates SkyCargo.

That SkyCargo table shows 19 777 freighters, two 777-300ERs converted or being converted to freighters, and six wet-leased 747 freighters. The 747s are flown for Emirates by other operators, so they never appear in Emirates’ own count.

In the fleet is not the same as flying

Emirates has 116 A380s, but not 116 in the air. In November 2025, it said it was flying 95 to 96 of them, with more coming back from long-term storage after maintenance and cabin upgrades.

Retrofits take jets out of service too. Each A380 refit takes 22 days and each 777 takes 18, and Emirates refurbished 42 aircraft in 2025-26 and 12 more between April and September 2026.

The order book, and where the fleet is going

Emirates has more aircraft on order than it flies. On March 31, 2026, the order book stood at 367: 270 Boeing 777Xs, 54 A350-900s, 35 Boeing 787s and 8 777 freighters, with deliveries scheduled through 2038.

The 777X order grew at the Dubai Airshow in November 2025, when Emirates ordered 65 more 777-9s along with 8 more A350-900s. None has been delivered yet.

In July 2026, Emirates said it expected its first 777-9 in the second quarter of 2027, and that it would not accept the first ten 777-9s built for it because of the rework they would need. The full story is in our piece on the Boeing 777X delay.

The A350 is filling the gap. The nine delivered between April and September took the type to 28, against 54 on order in March, so 45 of that order were still to come at the end of September.

The freighter fleet is changing shape as well. Emirates SkyCargo put its first passenger-to-freighter conversion into service in the half year, alongside the five new 777 freighters.

How Emirates compares with other big airlines

By aircraft count, Emirates is not close to the biggest. American Airlines had 1,609 aircraft on June 30, 2026, and United had 1,143 mainline jets on September 30, as our count of how many planes United has breaks down.

Count widebodies only and the order flips. United flew 244 widebodies on September 30, 2026, against Emirates’ 277 six months earlier.

That is why fleet size alone is a poor ranking. In our list of the largest airlines in the world by fleet, JetBlue’s 279 aircraft take 12th place, and Emirates’ 277 would sit just behind it.

Closer to home, Emirates is about twice the size of Abu Dhabi’s Etihad, which had an operating fleet of 127 aircraft at the start of 2026. How the two feel from the cabin is a different question, covered in Emirates vs Qatar vs Etihad.

FAQ

How many A380s does Emirates have?

116 on March 31, 2026, of which 78 were owned and 38 leased. Not all of them fly: in November 2025 Emirates said 95 to 96 were active, with a plan to reach 110 by the end of 2026.

How many A350s does Emirates have?

19 on March 31, 2026, after 15 were delivered in 2025-26. Emirates took nine more between April and September 2026, which took the type to 28, and had 54 A350-900s on order in March.

How many Boeing 777s does Emirates have?

142 on March 31, 2026: 119 777-300ERs, 10 777-200LRs and 13 777 freighters. That makes Emirates the world’s largest 777 operator, and 270 777Xs are on order.

How many planes does Emirates have on order?

367 on March 31, 2026: 270 Boeing 777Xs, 54 Airbus A350-900s, 35 Boeing 787s and 8 777 freighters, with deliveries scheduled through 2038.

Which is bigger, Emirates or Etihad?

Emirates, by about two to one. Emirates had 277 aircraft on March 31, 2026, while Etihad had an operating fleet of 127 aircraft at the start of 2026.

Which airline has the largest fleet?

Counting every aircraft, American Airlines, with 1,609 on June 30, 2026, including 579 regional jets. Emirates is much smaller by count, but every one of its 277 aircraft is a widebody.