Gallery: Emirates' Cabin Modifications Projects

In August 2022, Emirates announced plans to undertake cabin upgrade work on its fleet of Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 aircraft. The $2 billion project encompassed 120 aircraft in total, comprised of 67 A380s and 53 777s. Emirates Engineering, the maintenance arm of the UAE flag carrier, was scheduled to carry out complete retrofits on approximately four aircraft per month.

Emirates Engineering had a target of 16 days to complete each aircraft. To do this, it added 190 engineers for the project and estimated 1,000-labor hr. daily. The company stated that its technicians would undertake new installations of 4,000 premium economy seats, carry out upgrades on more than 5,000 business class seats and refurbishments on approximately 728 first class suites.

In November 2022, Emirates commenced the two-year long project by taking the first aircraft of the 120 scheduled for the program. An Airbus A380 entered the hangar in Dubai, having landed from Cairo on Oct. 31. Work included the removal of 88 economy seats to be replaced by 56 premium economy ones. The second aircraft was scheduled for Dec. 1, 2022, with Emirates planning to eventually ramp up to working on two aircraft simultaneously at its facilities in Dubai. 

In January, Emirates announced that the first retrofitted A380 had entered into service. The aircraft was deployed on the London Heathrow-Dubai route. For the A380 retrofits, the schedule will see one aircraft in the fleet withdrawn from service every eight days and transferred to the Emirates Engineering facilities in Dubai.

The next Emirates A380 aircraft lined up for its makeover is A6-EUW, and work is expected to be completed by the end of January. In total, Emirates says it is working with 48 partners and suppliers on the project.

By 2024, all 67 A380s assigned for refurbishment will have returned to service. Emirates will then begin work on its 53 Boeing 777s earmarked for this project. Running to the planned schedule, Emirates expects to complete all of the cabin modifications by April 2025.