Emirates has completed the refurbishment of its 100th wide-body aircraft, giving 47 Airbus A380s and 53 Boeing 777s a nose-to-tail makeover as part of a $US5 billion investment to modernise its fleet.
The biggest winner for travellers is the continued rollout of the airline’s highly regarded Premium Economy cabin. More than 3800 Premium Economy seats have now been installed across the upgraded aircraft, expanding availability on more routes and giving passengers another option between Economy and Business Class.
Every aircraft included in the retrofit program receives a complete cabin refresh, with engineers stripping the interiors back before rebuilding them with thousands of new components.
Since work began in late 2022, more than 400 engineers and technicians have spent a combined 4.4 million hours transforming the fleet at Emirates Engineering’s hangars in Dubai.
The airline originally planned to refurbish 105 aircraft, but strong customer demand prompted Emirates to almost double the scope of the project. It now expects to retrofit 219 aircraft, with another 20 due to be completed before the end of this year.
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