Emirates has confirmed that its premium economy cabin will go on sale from June 1st, with the cabin's official launch taking place on August 1st. The announcement confirms comments made to Simple Flying by the airline's President, Sir Tim Clark, at the 2021 Dubai Air Show.
Emirates first showcased its new premium economy cabin in December 2020, before the airline launched the first flights with the cabin in January 2021. Since then, the airline has been flying the product around the globe but hasn't been selling tickets for the cabin. Instead, certain economy passengers, such as Simple Flying's Jo Bailey, have found themselves with a pleasant surprise when flying on the giant of the skies.
Tickets from June 1st
Emirates will start selling tickets for the premium economy cabin from June 1st. However, passengers will have to wait even longer before they can intentionally try the cabin. While the airline will launch ticket sales on this date, the first date that travelers can book is August 1st.
Emirates is still faced with a challenge when it comes to launching the cabin. Right now, just six of the airline's A380s are equipped with premium economy, and it is set to stay this way until after the official launch. As a result, the airline will initially focus on flying the product to London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and Syndey.
In November, Emirates will launch its massive retrofit program that will see 67 Airbus A380s and 53 Boeing 777s gradually upgraded to include the latest product. Once the first of these have returned, Emirates will add Christchurch, New Zealand, to the premium economy route map.
We've still got a little while to wait until we find out exactly how much the premium economy cabin will cost. To give an idea, the cheapest one-way fare from London Heathrow to Dubai International on August 1st is £687.15 ($843.80) in economy, while business class is £2,533.76 ($3.126,52) and first is £4,465.76 ($5,510.49). Premium economy will sit between the economy and business prices.
Why has it taken so long?
Emirates has been flying passengers in the premium economy cabin for almost a year and a half. Given the response the product has received, it seems natural that Emirates would want to capitalize on the revenue. So why has it taken so long to launch? Part of the reason for the delayed rollout is that so few Airbus A380 aircraft and no Boeing 777s currently have the product. However, IT also played a role, as Clark told Simple Flying at the 2021 Dubai Airshow,
“The critical path in the timeline of this is information technology. There is a huge IT requirement in terms of the reservation systems, the departure control systems, the customer facing systems … once you introduce something like that, it causes an iterative change out in all sorts of things. So IT have been busy building the coding to make all those systems interact.
Are you excited about the official launch of Emirates' new premium economy cabin? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!