The first Emirates Boeing 777 with a nose-to-tail cabin refresh has rolled into service, as it prepares to take off to Geneva this afternoon (August 7). The aircraft took a total of 37 days for a complete retrofit and will be entering service four days ahead of its officially announced deployment schedule.
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 set in three rows in a 2-4-2 layout. 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, in addition to 6-way adjustable headrests.
The new Emirates 777 Business Class features enhanced privacy for passengers. The cabin’s seats and colours have been enhanced to echo the light and airy design elements of Emirates’ A380 experience, with soft leather cream seats accented with champagne trim, lighter wood panelling, and modern technology touches.
Set with 38 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, each 20.7-inch-wide seat converts to a flat bed which reclines up to 78.6 inches. The seat also features a padded headrest. 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 and multiple charging outlets for personal devices. The seat also features a touch screen seat controller for inflight entertainment and seat operation, and a personal 23-inch HD screen to access the airline’s ICE entertainment system.
The Emirates Boeing 777 Business Class cabin will also include a small bar for passengers to quickly grab mid-flight snacks and refreshments.
The new Economy Class cabin features 256 seats in a colour palette of soft greys and blues. The seats feature full leather headrests with flexible side panels that can also be adjusted vertically.
Emirates’ signature ghaf tree motif features prominently throughout the interiors.
Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “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. 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, injects modern sophistication to the flying experience and is carefully designed for more comfort.”
Emirates will be refurbishing another 80 Boeing 777 aircraft as part of its investment of over US$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.
The refurbishment work on the Boeing 777 was conceptualised, designed, and executed in-house by a dedicated team of 175 engineers and technicians at Emirates Engineering in Dubai.
The first B777 took 37 days and 18,000 manhours 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.
To deliver the first Boeing 777 refurbished aircraft, the airline used a total of 330 square metres of carpets, 340 laminate sheets, 8,000 square feet of leather for First, Business and Premium Economy Class seats, 800 metres of fabric for Economy Class seats and 300 litres of paint.
The airline has earmarked 191 Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 aircraft for a full facelift as part of the retrofit programme. Once the project is complete, the airline will have installed 8,104 next-generation Premium Economy seats, 1,894 refreshed First-Class suites, 11,182 upgraded Business Class seats and 21,814 Economy Class seats.
