Emirates’ plans to upgrade the entire interior cabins of 120 Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft is really taking off.
The ambitious project, representing a multi-billion dollar investment to ensure Emirates’ customers “fly better” for the coming years, aims to be “environmental friendly” and also includes plans for a 4th cabin class, called Premium Economy.
The target is to completely retrofit four Emirates aircraft from start to finish every month, continuously for over 2 years. Once the 67 earmarked A380s are refreshed and back in service, some 53 777s will undergo their facelift.
This will see nearly 4,000 brand new Premium Economy seats installed, 728 First Class suites refurbished and over 5,000 Business Class seats upgraded to a new style and design when the project is complete in April 2025.
The new Premium Economy cabin class, which offers luxurious seats and more legroom, is currently available to Emirates customers travelling on popular A380 routes to London, Paris, Sydney. It is between business and economy class. There will be between 24 and 32 of the new class on each aircraft.
In addition, carpets and stairs on aircraft will be upgraded, and cabin interior panels refreshed with new tones and design motifs.
A company spokesman told this site: “No other airline has handled a retrofit of this magnitude in-house, and there’s no blueprint for such an undertaking. Therefore Emirates engineering teams have been planning and testing extensively, to establish and streamline processes, and identify and address any possible snags.”
Trials began on an A380 in July last year, where engineers literally took each cabin apart piece-by-piece and logged every step. From removing seats and panelling to bolts and screws, every action was tested, timed and mapped out.
As part of the programme, new purpose-built workshops have been set up at Emirates Engineering to repaint, re-trim and re-upholster Business and Economy Class seats with new covers and cushioning. First Class suites will be carefully disassembled and sent to a specialised company to replace the leather, arm rests and other materials.
Sustainability continues to be vitally important for the company, added the spokesman, pointing out that Emirates has recently invested some $200m in an aviation sustainability fund which will finance, among other things, ecologically friendly fuel and cut emissions from aircraft.
The company, first launched in 1985, is taking other steps to cut its carbon footprint such as replacing paper menus with digital ones.
It remains firmly committed, said the spokesman, to IATA’s target of zero emissions by 2050.
