Emirates' First Retrofitted Boeing 777 Aircraft Takes Off to Geneva

The first Emirates Boeing 777 with a nose-to-tail cabin refresh sporting a new look has rolled into service, as it prepares to take off to Geneva this afternoon as Flight EK 83. The aircraft took a total of 37 days for a complete revamp 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 abreast 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 providing more space for stretching and relaxing, in addition to 6-way adjustable headrests.

The new Emirates 777 Business Class is set in a warm and inviting cabin featuring thoughtful refinements with enhanced privacy for customers. The cabin’s seats and colour story have been enhanced to echo the light and airy design elements of Emirates' iconic A380 experience, with soft leather cream seats accented with champagne trim, lighter wood panelling, and modern technology touches that deliver function and luxury.

Set with 38 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, each ergonomic 20.7-inch-wide seat converts to a spacious flat bed which reclines up to 78.6 inches. The seat also features a padded headrest for enhanced comfort. 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, multiple charging outlets for personal devices and more. The seat’s touch screen seat controller for in-flight entertainment and seat operation and a personal 23-inch HD screen, one of the biggest in the skies ensure every customer can fully enjoy the airline’s award-winning ice entertainment system. 

The Emirates Boeing 777 Business Class cabin will also include a small bar for customers 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 ergonomically designed seats also include full leather headrests with flexible side panels that can also be adjusted vertically for optimum support.

Emirates’ signature ghaf tree motif also features prominently throughout the interiors.

Emirates will be refurbishing another 80 Boeing 777 aircraft as part of its investment of over US$3 billion to deliver best-in-industry products that elevate the customer experience in the skies. 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, and more destinations to be served with this aircraft type will be announced soon.

The refurbishment work on the Boeing 777 was conceptualised, designed, and executed inhouse by a dedicated team of 175 engineers and technicians at Emirates Engineering in Dubai, with a laser focus on the highest quality and safety standards.

The project’s considerable impact on the local aviation eco-system is evident through the more than 10 major partners who have hired hundreds of skilled workers and set up workshops both at the Engineering facility and offsite to support the various aspects of the refurbishment programme. 

The first Boeing 777 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.

The airline has earmarked 191 Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 aircraft for a full facelift as part of the largest known retrofit programme the industry has seen in scale and size. 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. 

Emirates currently operates its refurbished aircraft to New York JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, London Heathrow, Sydney, Auckland, Christchurch, Melbourne, Singapore, Mumbai, Bangalore, Sao Paulo, Tokyo Narita, Osaka, Geneva and Dubai.