Emirates continues to celebrate the expansion of its Premium Economy offering, including three press releases so far this month. Indeed, by the end of July 2025 the carrier will serve 52 markets with the new cabin (as well as refreshed offerings in other classes of service on board).
Yet aircraft retrofits appear to be progressing slower than expected. Each retrofit takes longer than initially planned, requiring the carrier to extended its expected timeline of the program. It has also revised down expectations of markets served, and even with those revisions come up short.
Optimism from the beginning
In announcing the retrofit program in 2021 the carrier anticipated retrofitting 105 aircraft in 18 months, starting at the end of 2022. By 17 August 2022, shortly before the retrofits commenced, Emirates targeted “to completely retrofit four Emirates aircraft from start to finish every month, continuously for over 2 years.”
That program also envisaged the full complement of A380 retrofits completing prior to the 777s starting:
No other airline has handled a retrofit of this magnitude in-house, and there’s no blueprint for such an undertaking. Therefore Emirates Engineering teams have been planning and testing extensively, to establish and streamline processes, and identify and address any possible snags.
Trials began on an A380 in July, where experienced engineers literally took each cabin apart piece-by-piece and logged every step. From removing seats and panelling to bolts and screws, every action was tested, timed and mapped out. Potential impediments to completing the installation of Emirates’ new Premium Economy Class or the retrofit of the remaining three cabins in just 16 days were flagged and documented for expert teams to review and address.
The target of a 16-day retrofit ultimately proved unattainable.
A slow start
A year after the product officially began operations Emirates was operating 20 A380s fitted with premium economy. Of those, 14 were retrofits in nine months of work and six delivered from Airbus with the new cabin. Those retrofits averaged 36 days* of work, more than double the 16-day ideal the company anticipated. Eleven markets were served with the cabin in August 2023.
Read more: Emirates (re)commits big to Premium Economy
Typically in a retrofit program the airline processes learnings and improves efficiency. That does not appear the case with the Emirates retrofits. The next nine months of work – theoretically when everything would be complete from the original 2021 plans – yielded only eight more retrofits (22 total), just 43% of the throughput of the prior cycle.
At this point, in May 2024, the first 777 was about to start its program. Emirates announced “Each Boeing 777 aircraft will take approximately two weeks to refurbish before entering service,” and expected to be “serving 42 cities with Premium Economy by February 2025.” This was also when Emirates announced it was expanding the program to significantly more aircraft.
Read more: Emirates first 777 retrofit returns to service
The retrofit timeline was reiterated in a release on 1 July 2024, however the carrier knew things were moving slower than it wanted. In that same release it downgraded its expansion plans, stating it “aims to serve 36 cities with Premium Economy by February 2025 with the A350 entering its fleet in September of this year, in addition to more refurbished A380s and Boeing 777s rolling into service and flying to more cities in the coming months.”
By the end of February 2025 the carrier served 34 destinations, plus its Dubai hub, with the product. That number increased dramatically as the 777 retrofit program took hold and the A359s started to arrive.
Strong(ish) in 2025
By 1 July 2025 things were arguably looking better. A total of 60 aircraft were retrofit (31 A380s, 29 777s). The A350s arriving from Toulouse with premium economy installed allowed for significant growth in markets served. By the end of the month Emirates will fly to 52 destinations with a premium economy cabin.
The 777 retrofit work has stabilized around 21-23 days of work. That’s a week slower than expected, but at least it is consistent. And the carrier appears to be running two maintenance lines for the work consistently, with an occasional flex of a third line.
Read more: Emirates begins its A350 era with updated seats, entertainment, internet offerings
The A380s have show no such consistency. The last five retrofits ranged from 61-93 days out of service. Moreover, Emirates appears to only be running one retrofit line for the A380s consistently. An occasional second line has been online, and even a third for a brief moment at the end of 2023.
Ultimately the program’s growth has come from the 777s and the A350s, not the A380s. That is expected to continue, based on published schedules, through at least the end of the year.
Perhaps things will accelerate if the A380 retrofit timelines can be brought under control; that appears to be the limiting factor in the carrier’s efforts to date.
And we don’t really know why the program is running so far behind schedule. Perhaps it is a supply chain issue; those are all the rage these days. But if so, which supplier(s)? A query to Emirates remains pending at time of publication.
Where’s the finish line?
Emirates’ latest plans call for the carrier to retrofit 110 A380s and 81 777s. At its current pace that puts the 777 effort complete between 12-24 months from now, depending on whether the third line remains in service or not.
For the A380s things are much less clear. Emirates initiated 19 retrofits of that type in 2023. Just nine were started in 2024 and only two so far in 2025. Even if the carrier gets back to the 2023 pacing that’s still five more years of retrofits work. Worse, getting to that pace is only possible if the retrofits can be sped up or the carrier is willing to sacrifice capacity. And the A380 fleet is further pressured by heavy maintenance work; a steady flow of planes to Beijing appears to represent that effort.
*Based on number of days the aircraft remained out of service in Dubai during the retrofit process. If other work was also performed it is included in this timeframe. Data for retrofit work gathered by PaxEx.Aero using Cirium, FlightAware, and FlightRadar24.
More on Emirates Premium Economy:
- Emirates (finally) commits to Premium Economy
- Emirates puts Premium Economy on hold
- Emirates unveils Premium Economy offering
- Emirates launches Premium Economy to London
- Emirates (re)commits big to Premium Economy
- Emirates formally launches Premium Economy cabin sales
- Emirates first 777 retrofit returns to service
- Emirates begins its A350 era with updated seats, entertainment, internet offerings
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