Emirates investing over $2 billion to retrofit 120+ cabins and upgrade inflight experience

Emirates is investing over $2 billion to enhance its inflight customer experience, including a program to retrofit over 120 aircraft with the latest interiors and make a variety of service improvements across all cabins starting this year.

Some of Emirates’ latest initiatives include: elevated meal choices, a brand new vegan menu, a "cinema in the sky" experience, cabin interior upgrades and plenty of little touches that make travel memorable.

Starting this month, Emirates’ passengers can look forward to:

New Menus: New menus will be served on select Emirates routes in First Class, featuring dishes such as pan-fried salmon trout with moqueca sauce and creole rice, roasted duck breast with orange thyme jus, steamed broccolini and fondant potatoes. New menus will also be introduced to Business and Economy on September 1.

Champagne and Caviar: Emirates’ First Class passengers can now savor unlimited portions of Persian caviar as part of the "dine on demand" service, with an exquisite pairing of the world-renowned Dom Perignon vintage champagne (pictured). Emirates is the only airline with an exclusive agreement to offer the luxury brand on-board.

Cinema in the Sky: First Class passengers can enjoy watching the inflight movies even more by ordering cinema snacks. The cinema snack menu includes moreish classics such as lobster rolls, juicy sliders, edamame, and salted popcorn, and can be ordered on demand. All passengers can also curate their own inflight movie experience before their flight, simply by browsing and pre-selecting movies or TV shows on the Emirates app, which can then be synced to the airline's IFE system the moment they board.

Farm to Fork - Sustainable Supply Chain: Passengers departing on flights from Dubai can begin crunching on fresh greens harvested from Bustanica, the world’s largest vertical farm and newly-opened $40 million joint venture investment through Emirates Flight Catering.

Vegan Choices: Plant-based dishes such as pan-roasted king oyster mushrooms, jackfruit biryani and sliced kohlrabi garnished with burnt orange. Desserts are a decadent affair with choices of chocolate truffle cake with hazelnut, pistachio and gold leaf, or green grape tart adorned with candied rose petals, vanilla custard, and berry compote glistening with yuzu pearls.

Specialised Hospitality Training for Cabin Crew: Emirates has partnered with Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, one of the world’s top hospitality management schools, to craft the inflight service experience. Emirates Cabin Crew have already begun engaging in intensive training programs focused on delivering the four service pillars: Excellence, Attentiveness, Innovation and Passion.

Upgraded Cabin Interiors: The most significant investment is an extensive refurbishment of aircraft fleet interiors, where cabins will be retrofitted with new or reupholstered seats, new panelling, flooring and other cabin features. Every cabin class will be refreshed and new Premium Economy cabins installed. After the retrofit, Emirates will have a total of 120 aircraft offering Premium Economy seats and enhanced interiors and features across all other cabins. The first aircraft is scheduled to roll into the Emirates Engineering Centre for retrofitting in November, planning work and trials have begun in earnest.

“While others respond to industry pressures with cost cuts, Emirates is flying against the grain and investing to deliver ever better experiences to our customers,” said Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline. “Through the pandemic we’ve continued to launch new services and initiatives to ensure our customers travel with the assurance and ease, including digital initiatives to improve customer experiences on the ground. Now we’re rolling out a series of intensive programs to take Emirates’ signature inflight experiences to the next level.”

© Travel News Asia