Emirates donned the war paint yesterday by launching a two-pronged attack on European airlines. The Dubai-based carrier stepped up the war of words it has entered into about its rivals’ subsidy claims at the same time as announcing that it plans to acquire a fleet of at least 100 Airbus A380 superjumbos.

Emirates president, Tim Clark, who increased the airline’s orders by a third to 90 earlier this year, said the only thing stopping them expanding further at this point is a lack of parking space for planes. He added that 120 was the company’s baseline figure but they settled for 90 while they find more room at its home base in Dubai.

Emirates, the world’s largest airline and one of Dubai’s biggest assets, has continued to grow in the face of the UAE’s economic crisis despite several of its rivals falling into billions of dollars’ worth of debt. Passenger rates are increasing by 20 percent every year and Clarke said he expects this to continue for at least five years more.

Emirates’ target of 120 aircraft would see it order another 30 A380 – the world’s largest aeroplane – costing $10 billion. This would no doubt extend Emirates’ dominance in Europe and bring the carrier’s fleet to an overall value of $40 billion.

Clark claims the company is well-placed to receive its order of 90, 525-seat double-decker A380s and said it is also working with Boeing in connection to its next fleet of 777 mini-jumbos. Emirates also ordered 30 of the wide-body 363-seaters earlier this year in a deal thought to be worth more than $9 billion.