Emirates to invest over US$ 2 billion to enhance passenger experience including cabin refresh

Emirates has announced that it is investing US$ 2 billion to enhance the onboard experience of its passengers.

Emirates will retrofit over 120 aircraft in its fleet with the latest interiors, including the newly-introduced Premium Economy Class. Some of Emirates’ other latest initiatives include: elevated meal choices, a brand new vegan menu, a ‘cinema in the sky’ experience, cabin interior upgrades and sustainable choices.

Starting this month, passengers travelling on Emirates can look forward to:

• Enhanced meals including new menus: New menus will be served on select Emirates routes in First Class, featuring dishes such as pan-fried salmon trout with moqueca sauce and creole rice, roasted duck breast with orange thyme jus, steamed broccolini and fondant potatoes. New menus will also be introduced in Business and Economy Class on 1st September 2022. The Dubai-based airline says that “an award-winning team of chefs, a world-class catering team and a wide variety of suppliers have been assembled to design and deliver the best fine dining experience in the sky”.
• Vegan choices: Vegans, or anyone interested in a delicious and healthy plant-based meal, will enjoy handcrafted gourmet dishes such as pan-roasted king oyster mushrooms, flavoursome jackfruit biryani and sliced kohlrabi garnished with burnt orange. Desserts are a decadent affair with choices of chocolate truffle cake with hazelnut, pistachio and gold leaf, or green grape tart adorned with candied rose petals, vanilla custard, and berry compote glistening with yuzu pearls.
• Champagne and Caviar experience: The world-famous Emirates First Class experience has been upped a notch in 2022. Passengers can now savour unlimited portions of Persian caviar as part of the ‘dine on demand’ service, with an exquisite pairing of the world-renowned Dom Perignon vintage champagne. Emirates says that it is the only airline with an exclusive agreement to offer the luxury brand on-board.
• Cinema in the Sky: Passengers travelling in First Class can create a memorable movie moment on-board by ordering cinema snacks as they enjoy the 5,000 channels on Emirates’ ice inflight entertainment system. The cinema snack menu includes moreish classics such as lobster rolls, juicy sliders, edamame, and salted popcorn, and can be ordered on demand. All passengers can also curate their own ice experience before their flight, simply by browsing and pre-selecting movies or TV shows on the Emirates app, which can then be synced to ice the moment they board, maximising the seamless travel experience.
• Farm to Fork – Sustainable Supply Chain: Emirates’ passengers departing on flights from Dubai can begin crunching on fresh greens harvested from Bustanica, the world’s largest vertical farm and newly-opened US$40 million joint venture investment through Emirates Flight Catering. Emirates is continuing to invest in sustainable operations and supply chains, seeking local food suppliers and farms wherever possible to serve the freshest produce on board.

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In addition to these, Emirates is investing to upgrade cabin interiors. New or upholstered seats, new panelling, flooring and other cabin features will be some of the things that Emirates will install in the ‘record-breaking’ refurbishment of its aircraft. Benefitting all Emirates passengers, every cabin class will be refreshed and new Premium Economy cabins will also be installed, something which was announced earlier.

After the retrofit, Emirates will have a total of 120 aircraft offering Premium Economy seats – the only airline in the region to offer this cabin class, and enhanced interiors and features across all other cabins. With its first aircraft scheduled to roll into the Emirates Engineering Centre for retrofitting in November, planning work and trials have begun in earnest.

Emirates is also investing in specialised hospitality training for cabin crew. The carrier has partnered with Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, one of the world’s top hospitality management schools, to craft the Emirates Hospitality strategy and encourage inspiring customer experiences. Emirates Cabin Crew have already begun engaging in intensive training programmes focused on delivering the four service pillars: Excellence, Attentiveness, Innovation and Passion.

While others respond to industry pressures with cost cuts, Emirates is flying against the grain and investing to deliver ever better experiences to our customers. Through the pandemic we’ve continued to launch new services and initiatives to ensure our customers travel with the assurance and ease, including digital initiatives to improve customer experiences on the ground. Now we’re rolling out a series of intensive programmes to take Emirates’ signature inflight experiences to the next level.

said Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline.

Emirates has also confirmed that there will be more announcements about new products and services in the near future. Is Emirates giving hints about introducing a new Business Class product? The airline was going to unveil a new Business Class product for Boeing B777X aircraft. However, as the B777X is now delayed until 2025, Emirates may be looking to introduce a new Business Class product earlier than that.

We all know that Emirates is not a customer-favourite when it comes to its Business Class product onboard its B777 fleet. The airline’s B777 features a 2-3-2 configured Business Class cabin. Not having every Business Class seat with direct-aisle access is considered an ‘outdated’ product now-a-days. And that too in a ‘luxury’ airline like Emirates.

But there’s another point too. Emirates is retrofitting 120 of its aircraft with the updated Business Class cabin, which again comes in a 2-3-2 configuration. So it remains to be seen whether the airline introduces a new Business Class product on the B777X or some other aircraft model. Emirates has Airbus A350s, Boeing B787 Dreamliners and probably Airbus A330neos on order too. So we might see the new Business Class product being introduced on one of these new type of aircraft.

It all remains to be seen what Emirates has in store and what its’ plans are. For now, the airline is enhancing the passenger experience and that’s very good!

Meanwhile, Emirates recently announced that it has formed a strategic partnership with Air Canada.

Featured image by Caviar and Champagne onboard Emirates First Class Emirates

All the other images by Emirates

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