Emirates will introduce a number of Boeing 777 and Airbus A380s with upgraded cabins to 8 more cities on its network in the coming months, as well as plans for its first Airbus A350-900ULR.
The lucky cities getting refurbished interiors include the following:
- Bangkok flights EK372/373 will operate with the refreshed A380 from 1 July 2025.
- Hong Kong will receive its first refitted A380 on EK380/381 from 1 October. The operation will complement the airline’s newly introduced retrofitted Boeing 777 operations set to start this summer.
- Nice flights EK077/078 will have the new cabins from 15 October with a Boeing 777.
- Perth will become the fourth Australian city to receive the latest-generation A380 on flights EK 420/421 from 26 October.
- Madrid will enjoy an enhanced Boeing 777 onboard experience with refreshed interiors on EK 143/144 from 15 October. Madrid becomes the first destination in Spain to operate with the airline’s next-gen interiors.
- Kuala Lumpur flights EK346/347 will operate with a retrofitted Boeing 777 from 15 October.
- Frankfurt will be the first destination in Germany to see the new cabins, with a refurbished Emirates Boeing 777 on its daily EK043/044 from 15 December.
- Phuket will see the new cabin from 1 December on the daily EK396/397.
- Additionally, Dublin will receive its second refitted Boeing 777 on 1 December.
Since the start of the refurbishment programme in November 2022, Emirates has upgraded the interiors of 51 Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft, now flying to 38 destinations. The airline’s plans include entire cabin refurbishments of 219 aircraft, representing 110 Airbus A380s and 109 Boeing 777s.
With this planned deployment, over 70 cities will get the updated products. These include the updated business class cabin, as well as the new Premium Economy Cabin.
Emirates’ new/retrofitted Business Class Cabin – Image, Emirates
Emirates Premium Economy Cabin – Image, Emirates
Long Range A350 on the way too
Emirates is planning for its first Ultra-Long Range A350, with Adelaide being the first city in the airline’s network to receive the long-range Airbus A350.
This will commence on EK440/441 beginning 1 December. The Emirates Airbus A350-900ULR can stay in the air for over 15 hours non-stop, with a range exceeding 14,000 km.
By the end of 2025, Emirates expects to receive 5 A350 aircraft earmarked to serve long-haul missions, featuring 32 lie-flat Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, 28 seats in Premium Economy, and 238 Economy Class seats.
In Quotes
Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Deputy President and Chief Commercial Offic,er said:
“The latest rollout of refurbished Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s and new A350s offer more opportunities for customers in over 70 dynamic cities and growing economies to enjoy our latest generation premium onboard experience combined with our award-winning service. The redoubling of our refurbishment programme efforts means that by the end of this year, Emirates will have established itself as one of the preeminent industry leaders offering Premium Economy seats. In the next two years, we will definitively cement our position as the industry leader in Premium Economy deployment. The scaling up of our Premium Economy offering strengthens our competitive proposition to travellers and makes it our strategic differentiator by offering them more choice as they increasingly seek premium travel experiences.
Deploying our first long-range A350 to Adelaide is an exciting development and underscores the importance of Australia as a major eastbound anchor in our network. It also represents our commitment to delivering the best possible long-haul experience on our latest generation aircraft.”
A massive retrofit progamme
Emirates has invested big in its fleet, with the programme costing over US$ $5 billion. It is executed by the Emirates Engineering team with over 270 engineers and technicians working around the clock, devoting over 1,800 manhours each day.
On average, it takes 22 days to retrofit an A380, and 18 days for a Boeing 777. Every month, two aircraft roll out of the programme, ready for deployment to a new city, or to be layered on an existing operation sporting refurbished aircraft.
Once this monumental project is complete, Emirates will have installed 8,512 next-generation Premium Economy seats, 2,034 refreshed First-Class suites, 12,720 upgraded Business Class seats with entirely new configurations, and thoughtfully overhauled 68,364 Economy Class seats.
And if an aircraft is released into traffic early, its aircraft deployment could be advanced.
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Emirate’s refreshed business class at least has all aisle access – welcome to the 2005! – but it’s a terrible design without the armrests going down and locking you into a very narrow position because so much space is taken up by useless bling like the minibar. It’s hard to say which cabin is worse, but everybody still seems to hate it.