Emirates Marks Milestone 100th Aircraft Retrofit
- Joe Breitfeller
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Emirates has today announced a major milestone in their multi-billion-dollar aircraft retrofit program. Since launching in 2022, the program has refurbished 100 aircraft, which encompassed approximately 4.4 million hours of labor.
On Tuesday (July 14, 2026), Emirates announced that since launching their landmark aircraft retrofit program in 2022, they have completed 100 aircraft, including 47 Airbus A380s and 53 Boeing 777s. The aircraft have been given a complete nose-to-tail refresh at the Emirates Engineering hangars in Dubai. By the end of December 2026, around 20 additional aircraft will be upgraded, moving the airline significantly past the halfway point in their $5 billion investment aimed at delivering a consistently elevated experience to guests. Over the last 44 months, the Emirates Engineering team has deployed more than 400 engineers and technicians, investing a collective 4.4 million man hours to transform 100 aircraft.
In Tuesday’s announcement, Emirates Airline’s President, Sir Tim Clark, said,
“Our commitment to deliver best-in-class products across every cabin is an ongoing endeavour, and completing full cabin retrofits for 100 wide-body aircraft in 44 months is a significant achievement. Backed by a US$5 billion investment, it ensures our customers ‘fly better,’ with elevated luxury, comfort, and thoughtful detail throughout each cabin. Executing a project of this magnitude and complexity entirely inhouse has also required unmatched planning, precision, craftsmanship and technical capabilities here in Dubai. Our team has completely rewritten the rulebook on retrofitting the two largest passenger aircraft in commercial aviation to make sure that every aircraft returns to the skies on schedule and in impeccable shape.”
Each retrofitted aircraft features a new Premium Economy Cabin. Over 3,800 new Premium Economy seats have been installed in total as part of the initiative, accelerating the rollout of this popular product to more routes across Emirates’ network. Since the project began in November 2022, the Emirates Engineering team has retrofitted an average of 28 aircraft per year. As part of every retrofit, engineers completely take apart the interiors of the aircraft, execute a thorough refresh across all cabins armed with 4000+ parts for an A380 aircraft and 2500+ parts for a Boeing 777 aircraft and then put everything back together with precision.
Emirates’ retrofit programme was first announced in November 2021 covering 105 aircraft from the airline’s fleet. In November 2022, the very first Emirates aircraft, an Airbus A380, underwent retrofit at the Emirates Engineering hangars in Dubai. By May 2024, the retrofit initiative was expanded to cover 191 aircraft and then to 219 aircraft by the end of the year. In August 2024, the first Boeing 777 retrofitted in Dubai entered commercial service.
In May 2026, the Emirates Engineering team completed the two to three class retrofit of an A380, a project involving important structural changes to the aircraft including the introduction of Premium Economy Cabin in the upper deck of the aircraft for the very first time. Starting October 2026, the Emirates retrofit program will enter its next phase with the installation of 4K OLED HDR10+ display screens on aircraft seatbacks along with the introduction of the new lightweight Safran Z400 seats, among other product modifications.
Source: Emirates
