Emirates’ new Premium Economy cabin class, which offers luxurious seats, more legroom, and service to rival many airlines’ business offerings, is currently available to Emirates customers travelling on popular A380 routes to London, Paris, and Sydney. This will see nearly 4,000 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.
This ambitious project, representing a multi-billion dollar investment to ensure Emirates’ customers “fly better” for the coming years, officially commences in November and is managed entirely by Emirates’ Engineering team.
Until the retrofit programme starts in earnest in November, a cross-disciplinary team has been assembled to regularly review the planning process, address any issues, and track updates on various aspects of the project such as procurement, staffing, and training. Potential impediments to completing the installation of Emirates’ new Premium Economy Class or the retrofit of the remaining three cabins in just 16 days were flagged and documented for expert teams to review and address.
From the trials, Engineers discovered several unexpected solutions. For instance, existing food catering trucks could be easily repurposed to move parts destined for refurbishment from the aircraft to the workshop for refreshment, as these vehicles had doors of the right width and offered sufficient space.
As part of the programme, new purpose-built workshops will be set up at Emirates Engineering to repaint, re-trim and re-upholster Business and Economy Class seats with new covers and cushions. More customers will be able to experience the airline’s new Premium Economy cabins starting from year-end as the retrofit programme picks up momentum.
In addition, carpets and stairs will be upgraded, and cabin interior panels will be refreshed with new tones and design motifs, including the iconic ghaf trees native to the UAE.
Emirates has kick-started its plans to upgrade the entire interior cabins of 120 Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft – two of the largest commercial aircraft types in service today.
The target is to completely retrofit four Emirates aircraft from start to finish every month, continuously for over two years.
Trials began on an A380 in July, where experienced engineers took each cabin apart piece by piece and logged every step.
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.
Every action was tested, timed and mapped out by removing seats and panelling to bolts and screws. First Class suites will be carefully disassembled and sent to a specialised company to replace the leather, armrests and other materials.
Written by: Stephen Morton
.jpg){kind=tracking}
