On Wednesday, Emirates announced an enhancement for its business class cabins fleet-wide. After a trial period on routes to New York and Boston, starting February 1, all passengers in business class will receive new inflight amenities in the form of loungewear, slippers, and eye masks.
The airline pitches the loungewear as a “flight fit” that can not only be used for sleeping during the flight, but also for lounging around the inflight bar and breezing through arrivals after landing. It’s important to note that the airline wants to focus on the fact that these are loungewear garments and not pajamas.
Emirates notes a difference between the two with loungewear being garments that would be appropriate to be seen in public wearing as compared to pajamas which would raise eyebrows and draw stares.
Passengers on flights nine hours or more will receive the full set of amenities: a loungewear set, slippers, and eye masks. On flights of two and a half hours or more but less than nine hours, passengers will receive slippers and eye masks.
Upcoming New Business Class Seats
This comes as the Emirates brand continues to evolve and the airline invests in the next generation of cabins and service offerings. The airline is well underway on a large retrofit project of existing airplanes adding new finishes that align better with the brand’s new image.
Both business and first class cabins have seen meal enhancements such as better curated wine lists and the expansion of dining menus with higher-quality ingredients.
This all comes as the airline is expected to launch a new business class this year. Emirates’ existing Boeing 777-300 fleet will begin a refurbishment program this summer. The refurbishment will introduce a new business class product to the aircraft with seating in a 1-2-1 configuration. While these aircraft are being refurbished, the airline will also be adding a premium economy cabin.
Emirates will also be taking delivery of its first Airbus A350 aircraft this year. The airline has 65 A350-900s on order with the first set for delivery in later 2024. These aircraft should all be delivered by 2028.
While the exact layout of these soon-to-be-delivered aircraft is unknown, it is expected that the retrofitted Boeing 777 aircraft and the new Airbus A350s will both receive the new business class seats. It’s expected that the Boeing 777X aircraft the airline also has on order will have the same seats but delivery of these aircraft is unclear given Boeing’s delays finalizing the new aircraft.
Ultimately, the new business class seats will revamp the current Emirates business class product on the Boeing 777 fleet which are angle-flat seats and do not provide all seat aisle access.
