Emirates catching up in new First-Class product race but is it good enough?
In 2003 Emirates was the first airline to offer fully private suites in first class but other carriers are upping the ante and the Dubai-based carrier has had to play catch up.
At this week’s Dubai Air Show, Emirates launched a few industry firsts in first class but the question is, are they really enhancing the experience?
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Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airlines, is one of the foremost aviation industry visionaries and he helped launch Emirates in 1985.
And very unusually, Sir Tim is a very hands-on executive when it comes to product enhancements such as showers in first class.
Now Sir Tim has reached out again to bring the industry some firsts.
Since the days of the A380 product design it had been Sir Tim’s vision to offer a fully enclosed first-class compartment to his highest-paying customers, kind of a hotel room.
But a decade ago and until recently, aviation safety regulations were against it, crews had to be able to check on passengers. “We started the process in 2013 when we fitted out Emirates’ Executive A319, but still it was impossible then to offer fully enclosed suites, even on a private jet”, he recalls.
Then there was new hope as, according to Sir Tim, rules recently changed. “It is now more relaxed on enclosed suites, while it’s become tougher on other issues.”
At the Dubai Air Show, Sir Tim was able to unveil the world’s first fully enclosed first class suite, initially being introduced on newly delivered Boeing 777-300ERs only.
And don’t get too excited – while Emirates flies almost 150 Boeing 777s, the world’s biggest fleet of its type, “a maximum of eight to nine aircraft will have the new product by the end of 2019”, admits Sir Tim.
Dubai to Geneva and Brussels passengers will be the first experience of the new product from December 1.
“As we get more aircraft delivered Chicago, Brisbane and Perth are additional destinations likely to get the new product, but we need 2.5 aircraft to serve each of these ultra-long-haul destinations”, reveals Sir Tim.
And it is not clear if existing 777-300ERs will be retrofitted. Current A380s, however, are earmarked for conversion over a longer period of time, with eleven new Suites replacing 14 older ones.
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So, what is the new product actually like, and which innovations are really making a difference? AirlineRatings.com was able to check it out the first Boeing 777-300ER with the new product, freshly delivered from Seattle in time for the Dubai Air Show.
First Class consists of six suites, compared to eight before, and they come in 1-1-1 configuration, namely 1+2A, 1+2E and 1+2K.
The most spectacular ones are, surprisingly, the E-suites in the middle, as they contain a real novelty: Three fake windows on the right side that show projections of the outside.
“There are two fiber-optic cameras on the outside of seats 1A and 1K, and the passenger in the middle can choose which side he or she wants to see as a video projection in the Suite’s windows”, explains Sir Tim.
The passengers in the actual window seats are getting “compensated” with real binoculars of German manufacturer Steiner to peek outside, as part of their Suite’s equipment.
And the great part is that being an enclosed suite you can leave your window shades open all the time.
The Suites, which are 2,13 meters long and measure up to 3.7 square meters, are now fully enclosed by manually operated, single-piece doors (opposed to a two-piece, electrically operated ones), reaching up to 2.21 meters height.
Another industry first, and a very clever way to both appease regulators and find a unique way of unobtrusive service delivery, is a turndown hatch built into the wall of the Suite.
Through the hatch, cabin crew can deliver food or drinks without actually opening the door or disturbing the passenger, and at the same time, they can check on the passenger in emergencies.
In another industry first, a handheld tablet screen in the suite, allows the passenger to do a video room service call into the galley, a mere few meters away, to order service of any kind. But why this is a better way to just talk face to face with a human being standing before you is hard to grasp. There is also an option to just do a voice call to the galley.
The suite is impressive due to its high ceiling, lots of storage options, and its many innovative features, ranging from choosing your personal sequence of mood lighting to individually control your suite’s temperature.
This is a feature that clearly comes from upmarket automobiles, which is a no-brainer as Mercedes was a design partner for the Emirates suites. While the seat, made of finest leather, is upright, it is easy to stand up in the Suite, stretch or get changed into the moisturizing pajamas provided.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibqncXGMa4E
For lounging, Emirates offers a feature called “zero gravity seat setting inspired by NASA technology”. During a brief test on the ground, this didn’t seem to be unusually comfortable, at least not for a large male.
The bed length of 78” (1.98 meters) hasn’t changed compared to the current product, only the seat is wider with 30” (76cm). Unlike competitors such as Singapore Airlines in their Suites, Emirates doesn’t offer the option of having double beds by lowering dividers between suites.
“Unless you are very small, the bed only fits one”, says Sir Tim Clark. “But there is plenty of room to sit with a traveling partner.” Asked if there had been any incidents so far with passengers becoming too cozy in a suite, he asserted: “Generally, people behave.” But then, that was before the age of fully enclosed Suites.
