Emirates has completed the reconfiguration of all 10 of its Boeing 777-200LR aircraft and is in the process of retiring its last two Boeing 777-300 Classic aircraft.
In April the airline completed the reconfiguration of its last Boeing 777-200LR aircraft. Emirates invested USD$150 million in converting the 10 Boeing 777-200LR aircraft in its fleet from three to two class cabins featuring wider business class seats in a 2-2-2 format and a fully refreshed economy class cabin.
The reconfiguration of the 10 aircraft was carried out at Emirates Engineering’s facilities in Dubai. The engineering team spent over 160,000 hours on the project, working with more than 30 suppliers and handling over 2,700 spare parts at any one time.
On average it took about 35 days for the team to completely strip and reconfigure a single aircraft.
The first Boeing 777-200LR with the new configuration was rolled out for commercial service in March 2018. The remaining aircraft were reconfigured over the course of the following 12 months and the project was completed almost three months ahead of schedule.
The airline is also in the process of retiring the last two Boeing 777-300 Classic aircraft in its fleet. A6-EMV, delivered in February 2003, has been phased out of the Emirates fleet, and the A6-EMX, delivered in June 2003, will shortly also be removed from commercial service.
With the retirement of these aircraft, Emirates’ Boeing fleet will be composed of the Boeing 777-300ER and the newly refreshed Boeing 777-200LR fleet.
In 2019 Emirates’ fleet renewal programme includes retiring seven older Boeing 777 aircraft and taking delivery of six new Airbus A380.
