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Ahead of a meeting with Boeing executives in Dubai next week, Emirates President Tim Clark is chasing clarity and certainty from the plane builder. Emirates has over one hundred 777Xs and 30 Dreamliners on order with Boeing and faces an uncertain delivery timeline. Tim Clark is past exasperation. Ask him a question about the Boeing orders, and he sighs, looks to the ceiling, and shrugs his shoulders like a prisoner who has moved from denial to acceptance.

Emirates' 777X order dates back to 2013. At the time, Emirates anticipated its first 777Xs entering service in 2020. In 2019, the airline ordered the 787-9 Dreamliners, with the first deliveries slated for 2023. But issues with the development and production of both planes have seen the original delivery timelines shot to pieces.

If it comes down to the wire, Emirates President says he'll take the 777Xs over the Dreamliners

At a media round table in Doha this week, the Emirates President confirmed he wasn't expecting his first 777X until July 2025. But he also notes the flight test program is almost at a standstill, and he expects production difficulties. As for the Dreamliners, the order still stands, but they too aren't expected until 2025. When push comes to shove, the 777Xs are more important to Emirates, and Tim Clark wouldn't have sleepless nights if the Dreamliner order fell through.

"As far as the 787s are concerned, we're having a good hard look to see whether they (still) fit into the program or not ... I kind of think there might be relief on both sides if it (the 787 deliveries) didn't happen at this point in time. It's far more important to us that they concentrate on getting their 777X out the door," said Mr Clark.

"Given the backlog and everything else, it may be better for everybody to say we don't want the 787, we may in the future but the A350s are coming in hopefully in summer 2024. We are talking to Airbus about compressing the delivery dates so we may get two a month - we'll have 50 coming in two years."

Emirates needs those 777Xs

The Emirates President has criticized Boeing in the past. He says the problem at Boeing is not about individuals, or who's in the c-suite, or culture. Instead, Tim Clark suggests Boeing's "problems" go back to its operating model. The Emirates president isn't the only senior airline executive who has called out Boeing in the past. He says if Boeing hasn't got the message from customers about sorting out their in-house issues by now, they never will.

Tim Clark says that operating model revolves around designing and building planes to a gold standard on the basis of what the customers wanted. He says if Boeing starts doing that well again, customers will start buying their planes again. Mr Clark says Emirates' expectations of Boeing (and other suppliers) are driven by the exacting standards Emirates imposes on itself.

"At the end you need certainty, you need to be able to deliver to contract. Boeing's contract drives everything - except when it goes wrong. We are having to be patient or, dare I say, grown up."

Emirates needs its big planes like the 777X. Mr Clark says capacity restricted airports such as Heathrow and San Francisco means they cannot feasibly send in half a dozen 787s to replace the capacity two A380 flights offer. That's the kind of stuff that vexes the Emirates President.

Meanwhile, 787 delivery timelines and contractual obligations are on the agenda at next week's meeting with Boeing in Dubai.