Dubai’s Emirates to delay Premium Economy launch

Dubai: Emirates airline will delay the launch of its Premium Economy cabin class by around six months as a result of a setback in the delivery of new Boeing 777X aircraft.

Tim Clark, president of Emirates airline, said that while the Premium Economy was set to debut on the 777X’s in June 2020, that timeline has had to be pushed back, and the new seats will now hopefully debut in December on Airbus A380 jets instead.

The delays come as Boeing postpones the launch of its 777X aircraft, which were originally set to take off on their first flight in the summer, amid problems with the model’s General Electric-made engine. Emirates has 150 orders of the 777X jets and will be the first customer to receive the model.

“[Premium Economy] will be a beautiful product, but whether or not we can apply it in a ubiquitous manner across the network is something else … but people will see it as it comes out and it’s going to be really good,” Clark told reporters on Sunday.

Asked when Emirates is expecting to receive 777X jets, he said, “That’s a good question. You need to ask Boeing that. We have 150 [aircraft] in contract. The first one should have been arriving in June of next year, but I would suggest quite strongly that it won’t.”

Clark said that there hasn’t yet been any resolution regarding the GE engines, putting the deliveries on hold.