Always abreast of innovations in the industry and equipping itself with the fleet for the future to enhance passengers’ inflight comfort, Emirates has undertaken to refurbish its fleet of Boeing 777-200 aircraft.
The Emirates Engineering Centre is retrofitting all the aircraft in-house with its existing state-of-the-art facilities as well as innovative new systems.
Emirates' current fleet of 88 aircraft includes nine Boeing 777-200s, of which seven have been refurbished and the other two will be ready by January 2007. The First Class cabins of the 777-200 now boast of 12 roomy, lie flat seats that convert to a bed at the touch of a button. A 2-2-2 seat configuration with wider aisles, electrically-operated privacy dividers and in-seat reading lights provide privacy and the comfort of home. The centre seats are pitched up to 84 inches apart and provide easy access to the aisles. The seats have a soothing five-zone massage system while the one-touch seat controls are preset for bed, cradle and upright positions. Personal swivel tables with book functions are available at the touch of a button, as is laptop power.
The Business Class cabins have been converted to feature roomy, sleeperette seats in a 2-3-2 configuration with pitch of up to 60 inches, adjustable winged head-rests with four-way movement for optimum comfort, and in-seat laptop power which provide plenty of room to work or stretch out and relax.
Economy passengers can enjoy more comfort than ever with roomier cabins, 34-inch seat pitch, and adjustable footrests and headrests.
But that’s not all. The 777-200s also have been retrofitted with the ICE (information, communication and entertainment) system, available on passengers’ personal 19-inch digital display screens in First Class and 10.4-inch digital display screens in Business Class.
The system offers more than 500 audio, video and games channels available on demand and is available to customers travelling in every class. Besides the multitude of entertainment options available, ICE offers email and SMS facilities as well. Currently, nearly 35 per cent of Emirates' fleet is fitted with Panasonic’s latest 3000i, dubbed ‘ICE’ at Emirates.
Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “Emirates has always prided itself on its inflight product offering – from service standards to seats and from food to entertainment. We have re-designed the interiors of the Boeing 777-200s to bring them in line with our new Boeing 777-300ERs and the Airbus A340-500s. Although you perceive the same aircraft on the outside, the heart of our 777-200s is beating with re-designed interiors and enhanced entertainment options. The Emirates Engineering Centre has proved it’s a world-class facility, and has done a fantastic job in re-designing and refitting the 777-200s.”
Emirates has also overhauled its 29 A330-200s for increased passenger comfort. The Business Class cabins have been refurbished to increase seat pitch from 48-49 inches to 58-63 inches, with the recline of the seats increased from 11 to 15 inches and height of the leg-rests raised from 6.1 inches to 9.5-12.5 inches depending on the configuration. The eight A340-300s have been similarly refurbished to increase recline and raise the height of the leg-rests.
