Tied to the 777X delivery
Premium economy on the A380
Therefore, Arabian Business reports that premium economy will now be rolled out with the Airbus A380 in December 2020. That's more than a year away. Earlier this summer we had suspected - or hoped - that the new cabin would be available in the first quarter of 2020.
As we wrote in July, Emirates’ new premium economy seat is predicted to be the Haeco Eclipse seat. The seat will be a “short-haul business class and long-haul premium economy” product. Speculation has been rampant, but there is still no solid, official confirmation that this will be the seat.
Despite the announcement that A380s are being phased out as their leases expire, it is expected that the A380 will continue to be a part of the Emirates fleet for the foreseeable future. According to Emirates CEO Tim Clark, the aircraft will still be part of the airline’s fleet up to 2035. The A380 retirement is to be progressive, first stabilizing at about 115 aircraft, and then going down to 90-100 by the middle of the 2020s.
Conclusion
With so many airlines adopting the premium economy cabin approach, it would be nice to see Emirates do this earlier than December 2020. Emirates has a reputation for outshining other legacy carriers in terms of service and flight experience in comparable classes. It's unfortunate that we'll have to wait so long. Will you give it a try when it's finally available?
We reached out to Emirates for a comment on this matter. However, we have not heard back from them at the time of publishing this article.