Emirates’ first retrofitted Boeing 777 will be entering service today, August 7, four days ahead of its expected deployment schedule. Travellers on flight EK83 to Geneva this afternoon will be experiencing the aircraft’s all-new business class seats and premium economy cabins.
It took the Emirates’ teams 37 days to complete the overhaul — from pulling the cabins apart to bring them back together in a new look.
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The Emirates Boeing 777 entered refurbishment in early July, with a planned reconfiguration of the aircraft to make way for a new premium economy cabin consisting of 24 seats. The cream leather seats, accentuated by wood panel finishings across the cabin, offer enhanced comfort with a 38-inch pitch, 19.5-inch-wide seats that recline 8 inches, providing more space for stretching and relaxing, in addition to six-way adjustable headrests.
“Our latest Business Class cabin offers customers a sense of exclusivity and privacy, complemented by our best-in-class suite of onboard products,” said Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline.
“The addition of our popular Premium Economy cabin, rated one of the best in the industry, injects modern sophistication to the flying experience and is carefully designed for more comfort,” Clark said.
What’s new in business class?
The new Emirates 777 business class is set in a warm and inviting cabin featuring thoughtful refinements with enhanced privacy for customers.
The cabin’s seats and colour story have been enhanced to echo the light and airy design elements of Emirates’ iconic A380 experience, with soft leather cream seats accented with champagne trim, lighter wood panelling, and modern technology touches that deliver function and luxury.
Set with 38 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, each ergonomic 20.7-inch-wide seat converts to a spacious flat bed that reclines up to 78.6 inches.
The seat also features a padded headrest for enhanced comfort. Seats in the cabin are arranged four-abreast, offering every customer direct access to the aisle.
Each seat features a personal mini-bar, table for dining or working, multiple charging outlets for personal devices and more. The seat’s touch screen seat controller for in-flight entertainment and seat operation and a personal 23-inch HD screen, one of the biggest in the skies ensure every customer can fully enjoy the airline’s award-winning ice entertainment system.
The Emirates Boeing 777 business class cabin will also include a small bar for customers to quickly grab mid-flight snacks and refreshments.
What’s new in economy?
The new economy class cabin features 256 seats in a colour palette of soft greys and blues. The ergonomically designed seats also include full leather headrests with flexible side panels that can also be adjusted vertically for optimum support.
Emirates’ signature ghaf tree motif also features prominently throughout the interiors.
Emirates will be refurbishing another 80 Boeing 777 aircraft as part of its investment of more than $3 billion to deliver best-in-industry products that elevate the customer experience in the skies.
New look for more flights
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, and more destinations to be served with this aircraft type will be announced soon.
Emirates currently operates its refurbished aircraft to New York JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, London Heathrow, Sydney, Auckland, Christchurch, Melbourne, Singapore, Mumbai, Bangalore, Sao Paulo, Tokyo Narita, Osaka, Geneva and Dubai.
The refurbishment work on the Boeing 777 was conceptualised, designed, and executed inhouse by a dedicated 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 to support the various aspects of the refurbishment programme.
The first B777 took 37 days and 18,000 man-hours to finish as teams operated round the clock 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.