Emirates airline will launch its much anticipated premium economy offering in 2020 on the newly-ordered A380, according to its president, Sir Tim Clark.
Premium economy is levelled at between economy class and business class and considered as a potentially lucrative product option for airlines facing tough macroeconomic conditions.
Late last year, in an interview with Aviation Business Middle East, Clark said Emirates “may have underestimated the demand for premium economy”, and that it was “seriously considering” introducing the premium economy option for some of its aircraft.
Speaking on the airline’s podcast series Emirates World, Clark said premium economy, which “remains a hot topic in the company”, will launch when it takes delivery of the A380 aircraft it ordered in January this year.
“We have already ‘spec’d out’ the airplanes; we know exactly what we’re going to do, [and] where we’re going to place these seats, which zones (destinations)and how we’re designing the product,” Clark told Steve Harvey, host of Emirates World interviews, which are broadcast on all the airline’s flights.
“We’ve just got to make absolutely sure that the maths stack up,” he added.
Without revealing too much detail about Emirates’ premium offering, Clark described it as “special”.
“The airplanes that we ordered, the latest A380s – the first six of which come in 2020 – we will be installing premium economy in those, and it will be an Emirates premium economy, so it will be special.”
Demand for First Class, however, “remains strong in the Middle East and will continue into the future”, Clark said.
He said the upgraded First Class offering on its Boeing 777 flights to Geneva and Brussels are always full, and Emirates is “working to get them onto the A380 as soon as possible”.