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No passport. No boarding pass. No airport queues. Sydney travellers got to try a new-look Emirates Business Class seat at the Flight Centre Travel Expo. Better still, they did not have to leave the ground.

The airline brought its revamped Boeing 777 seat to ICC Sydney for the 17–18 October show. Travel agents and keen holiday-makers could see the new cabin design up close. It was a neat way to make a point: the flight can matter almost as much as the place at the end of it.

Business Class takes centre stage

The seat was the star of the Emirates stand. Yet the airline had a bigger story to tell. It also showed guests how its Dubai hub links Australians to nearly 140 cities and other destinations worldwide.

Flight Centre billed the show as a chance to meet more than 85 exhibitors and 200 travel experts. A trade day came first, on Friday. Then came two days for the public, with airlines, cruise lines, hotels and tour firms under one roof. Emirates said the expo drew thousands, but gave no firm count for visits to its stand.

Adam D’Ambrosio, Regional Sales Manager at Emirates, said:

“The Flight Centre Travel Expo is a wonderful opportunity to connect with Australian travellers and our travel industry partners, and to showcase the Emirates experience first-hand. Our retrofitted Boeing 777 Business Class product reflects Emirates’ continued focus on product innovation and customer experience, as we continue working to further elevate our onboard and on-ground experiences. In our 30 years of operations in Australia, Emirates has consistently sought to deliver value and choice to Australian travellers, and we look forward to continuing this well into the future.”

A bigger choice for Aussie flyers

There is more to the story than a smart seat. Emirates flies 70 times each week from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide to Dubai. From there, passengers can fly on to a wide range of places in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The airline says 56 of those 70 weekly flights now use planes with its new or upgraded cabins. They include the Airbus A380 and newer A350. Emirates also says it now offers more than 5,000 Premium Economy seats a week from its five Australian ports.

For those facing a long flight, that means more ways to travel. Premium Economy sits between Economy and Business Class. The extra choice may appeal to people who want more room but cannot stretch to a top-end fare. As always, check the seat map and aircraft type before you pay. Not every flight has the same cabin.

A $5 billion makeover, not an overnight fix

The new seat is one part of a vast fleet refit. Emirates puts the cost at US$5 billion. It plans to renew the cabins on 219 Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 jets. This work will add more new seats and cabin features to routes across its network.

There is more on the way. Emirates is rolling out Starlink Wi-Fi, sharper 4K screens and new ways to charge devices. Its U-Dream headrest has begun to appear on some A350s. Other jets will get upgrades later. The key point for customers is simple: new features will vary by plane and date.

Thirty years of flying, and still making a pitch

Emirates first flew to Melbourne in June 1996. It now serves five Australian cities and says it has flown more than 40 million people on routes between Australia and the rest of the world.

The carrier had another reason to smile this month. It won Most Popular Airline – Online at the 2026 National Travel Industry Awards. That result is listed by the Australian Travel Industry Association. It also ran special Flight Centre fares from Sydney during the expo. Those deals were for select routes and came with booking terms.

The days when an airline could win hearts with a route map alone are fading. A seat you can sit in, even on the expo floor, tells a stronger tale. Emirates gave Sydney a taste of the flight. Now comes the harder part: winning the booking.