Emirates spending $2b on Premium Economy seating and inflight experience

Dubai: Emirates airline is investing over $2 billion to enhance its inflight customer experience, including a massive programme to retrofit over 120 aircraft with Premium Economy seats.

“While others respond to industry pressures with cost cuts, Emirates is flying against the grain and investing to deliver ever better experiences to our customers,” said Tim Clark, Emirates’ President. “Through the pandemic, we’ve continued to launch new services and initiatives to ensure our customers travel with the assurance and ease, including digital initiatives to improve customer experiences on the ground. Now we’re rolling out a series of intensive programmes to take Emirates’ signature inflight experiences to the next level.”

Some of Emirates’ latest initiatives include elevated meal choices, a brand-new vegan menu, a ‘cinema in the sky’ experience, and cabin interior upgrades. The most significant investment is an extensive refurbishment of the aircraft fleet interiors, where cabins will be retrofitted with new or reupholstered seats, new paneling, flooring, and other cabin features, said Emirates.

Every cabin class will be refreshed, and new Premium Economy cabins installed. After the retrofit, Emirates will have a total of 120 aircraft offering Premium Economy seats – the only airline in the region to offer this cabin class, and enhanced interiors and features across all other cabins.

“With its first aircraft scheduled to roll into the Emirates Engineering Centre for retrofitting in November, planning work and trials have begun in earnest,” said the airline.