Dubai: The first of Emirates’ Boeing 777s with a completely new look to the cabins is going into service, with a trip to Geneva today (August 7).
The aircraft took 37 days for the revamp and entering service four days prior to the earlier announced deployment schedule.
“Emirates continues to carry out our commitment to deliver an unmatchable onboard experience with the introduction of our latest Boeing 777 with new signature interiors, raising the industry benchmark when it comes to premium travel,” said Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline.
“Our latest Business Class cabin offers customers a sense of exclusivity and privacy, complemented by our best-in-class suite of onboard products. The addition of our popular Premium Economy cabin, rated one of the best in the industry, and is carefully designed for more comfort.
“With more Boeing 777s and A380s refreshed to sport our latest generation onboard products, customers can consistently have the very best experiences in the sky across both aircraft types.”
The aircraft went for refurbishment early July, with a planned reconfiguration allowing for new Premium Economy space featuring 24 seats set in three rows in a 2-4-2 abreast layout.
The cream leather seats, toned up by wood panel finishings across the cabin, offer ‘enhanced comfort’ with a 38-inch pitch, 19.5-inch-wide seats that recline 8 inches, in addition to 6-way adjustable headrests.
The Business Class seats and colour have been done to ‘echo the light and airy design elements of Emirates' iconic A380 experience’. It is matched with soft leather cream seats accented with champagne trim, and lighter wood paneling.
Set with 38 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, each 20.7-inch-wide seat converts to a flatbed. Apart from other comforts and features, there is the personal 23-inch HD screen, ‘one of the biggest in the skies’.
81 777s in all
Emirates will refurbish another 80 Boeing 777 aircraft as part of an investment of over $3 billion. In addition to Geneva, the airline will deploy its upgraded Boeing 777s with new cabins to Tokyo Haneda and Brussels in the next few weeks. More destinations are to be added soon.
New jobs created
The refurbishment work - conceptualised, designed, and executed by Emirates in-house - features a team of 175 engineers and technicians at Emirates Engineering in Dubai.
“The project’s considerable impact on the local aviation eco-system is evident through the more than 10 major partners who have hired hundreds of skilled workers and set up workshops both at the Engineering facility and offsite,” said a statement by the airline.
The first B777 took up 37 days and 18,000 manhours to finish, with teams operating in a chronological sequence of work, from the removal of interiors, all the way to reinstallation and testing of the new seats and other cabin components.
