Emirates has revealed that it will now spend as much as US $5 billion to upgrade older airplanes with new cabin interiors, including upgraded seats and other amenities, due to continuing delays in receiving a backlog of new aircraft, including the Boeing 777X.
During a meeting on the sidelines of a major aviation expo in Berlin, Germany, the airline’s president, Sir Tim Clark, said Emirates had been forced to “take control of our own destiny” owing to the lengthy delays in receiving new jets.
Emirates first announced its plan to overhaul older airplane interiors back in 2022 when it launched a retrofit project for 120 Airbus A380 superjumbos and Boeing 777 planes at a projected cost of $2 billion.
By last year, however, Clark said the project had been expanded to include 71 additional jets, which would allow the airline to install its new Premium Economy cabin across more of its fleet.
Speaking at the ITB Berlin convention, Clark commented on the lengthy delays in receiving new aircraft: “I could see the problems on the horizon, so we took the decision then, and thank God we did.”
Emirates had initially planned to start taking delivery of next-generation Boeing 777X half a decade ago, but serious certification issues have pushed the first delivery until 2026 at the earliest.
The airline has been retrofitting its existing fleet completely in-house at its extensive ‘maintenance, repair and overhaul’ facilities in Dubai, where workers are stripping out older seats and interiors in a head-to-toe refurbishment.
Around four aircraft every month are being retrofitted, including many having a Premium Cabin installed for the first time.
Clark had long dismissed the benefits of Premium Economy for the airline and had openly spoken about his fears that the halfway cabin between Economy and Business Class would gut demand for premium cabins.
During the pandemic, however, the airline decided to install Premium Economy on a very small number of jets in an experiment that proved to be a huge hit with passengers. Ever since Emirates has been in a race with itself to install the cabin across more of its massive fleet.
