Emirates is currently undergoing an aggressive retrofit project for the interiors of its aircraft, to introduce a new product standard, and also to roll out premium economy. Along those lines, the airline has revealed plans to reconfigure the highest capacity aircraft flown by any airline. With this, we’ll no longer see any commercial aircraft with over 600 seats.
In this post:
Emirates’ densest A380s go from 615 to 569 seats
Emirates has a fleet of well over 100 Airbus A380s. While a vast majority of those feature first class, there are also 15 of these planes without a first class cabin, intended primarily for short and medium haul flights with less premium demand.
These are the world’s highest capacity aircraft, as they boast 615 seats, including 58 business class seats and 557 economy class seats.
Emirates is in the process of rolling out premium economy throughout its A380 fleet, and as part of that project, the cabin is also coming to the carrier’s high density A380s. The plan is for Emirates to start reconfiguring A380s without first class in the coming months, and for them to start entering service as of this spring.
With this, we’ll see overall capacity of these A380s reduced by around 8%, from 615 seats to 569 seats, as follows:
- Business class will be increased in size by 18 seats, from 58 to 76 seats
- Premium economy will be introduced, with 56 seats
- Economy will be reduced in size by 120 seats, from 557 to 437 seats
Bigger picture, it’s interesting to look at how exactly the cabin layout is changing. For context, here’s the seat map for Emirates’ old high density A380. Business class is at the back of the upper deck, while the front of the upper deck has 120 economy seats, and the lower deck has 437 economy seats.
With these changes, the business class cabin will be increased in size to 76 seats, the same number of business class seats you’ll find on all of Emirates’ A380s with first class. So that means the entire Emirates A380 fleet will have 76 business class seats, all located in the middle and back of the upper deck.
Then premium economy will be in the space of where the first class cabin typically is, meaning that there will be 56 premium economy seats in lieu of 14 first class seats. That means the upper deck will be entirely dedicated to premium seating throughout the Emirates A380 fleet. Then the lower deck will have 437 economy seats, so there’s no change there.
This seems like a sensible A380 retrofit project
It’s not surprising to see Emirates reconfiguring its high density Airbus A380s. After all, the idea is that these A380s fly in markets where there might not be much first class demand, but there is still potentially a fair bit of business class and premium economy demand.
We have seen an increase in premium travel demand globally over the years, so it’s logical that after many years in service, the airline would rethink the layout of these planes. And if you’re going to introduce premium economy on the upper deck, then you might as well also streamline things, in terms of having the upper deck entirely dedicated to business class and premium economy.
Emirates’ premium economy is great in general, but should be especially nice on these A380s, given the location at the front of the upper deck, plus the 2-3-2 layout. On the four-cabin A380s, premium economy is at the front of the lower deck, and is in a 2-4-2 layout.
Bottom line
Emirates plans to reconfigure the cabins of its high density Airbus A380s, which currently feature 615 seats. These planes will see business class capacity increase by 18 seats, the introduction of a new 56-seat premium economy cabin, and economy capacity reduced by 120 seats.
It’s logical for Emirates to roll out premium economy on these planes, and in the process, rethink the layout to reflect how travel demand has evolved.
What do you make of Emirates’ high density A380 retrofit plans?
My bottom line ….
This aircraft upgrade will probably never affect anyone who follows this website. The fact is that these few aircraft have been in service for ages. They have been flying those routes which the majority of international travellers were unlikely to use. One suspects that the routes are unlikely change and therefore one’s exposure remains unchanged.
Ben, do you know why aeroroutes is listing these changes as being for Emirates Skycargo? Is he mistaken, or is there some kind of operating certificate shell game going on?
Aeroroutes is using the cargo schedule to pinpoint the future passenger deployment of it.
With all of those passengers, the departure gate areas for these planes must be incredible...
I love the A380...wish it would find a way to continue to exist especially for airlines like Emirates
By matching the number of business class seats to other A380s and adding premium economy, they're getting flexibility to use these birds on longer more premium routes.
We have a winner.
This is fleet standardization.
Eventually EK will be retiring them to a point of being too complex to maintain an additional sub fleet.
I do not have EK's internal data, but I would anticipate that "short and medium haul flights with less premium demand" need even more preminum economy at the expense of business.
On the same vein on Emirates, how is Toby? Would you happen to have any intel on how he's doing? I still remember you, Ford, and Toby in masks years ago!
I hope he is doing well.