Today Emirates finally begins its 2 year retrofit programme, starting work on the first 120 aircraft earmarked for a full cabin interior upgrade and the installation of the airline’s latest Premium Economy seats. The project has a multi-billion dollar price tag and aims to ensure a more comfortable and pleasant travel experience to all Emirates customers.
In addition to recruiting 190 additional staff for the project, Emirates is also engaged with 62 key partners and suppliers who have hired hundreds more skilled hands for the biggest-known aircraft retrofit programme in modern commercial aviation.
Progress report
For the next 16 days, around the clock, teams of engineers and technicians will take apart the entire cabin interior of the A380 and put it back together again in a carefully planned and tested sequence. Effectively the entire aircraft will be receiving a facelift, not even the famous shower spa will be untouched, receiving new colour tones with a hand-stencilled motif of a Ghaf tree. Once the refit work is completed, the aircraft will be inspected and certified by aviation authorities before it re-enters service.
The second aircraft scheduled for a makeover, A6-EUW, will roll into Emirates Engineering Centre on 01 December.
As the programme goes into full swing, engineers will work simultaneously on two aircraft. This means, every eight days, one aircraft will be grounded and towed to Emirates Engineering for retrofitting. By the 23rd of May 2024, all 67 A380s earmarked for the retrofit programme will be back in service and Emirates will then begin work on 53 of its Boeing 777s. By March 2025, all 120 retrofitted aircraft will be back in service.
Emirates’ new Premium Economy cabin class offers luxurious seats, more legroom, and really rivals the Business Class amenities available on most other airlines. It is currently available to customers travelling on popular A380 routes to London, Paris and Sydney. More customers will be able to experience Emirates’ Premium Economy cabins as the retrofit programme picks up pace.
The airline has announced plans to introduce Premium Economy service on its routes to New York JFK, San Francisco, Melbourne, Auckland and Singapore, by end March 2023. Read more here.