Emirates has announced that it will introduce its premium economy seats on two routes to India from October this year.
Starting October 29, the carrier’s newly-retrofitted A380 aircraft will operate via a daily nonstop service to both Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Emirates introduced its superjumbo on the Dubai-Mumbai route back in 2014 and to Bengaluru in October last year.
It initiated a US$2 billion retrofitting project towards the end of last year which will be completed by 2025. The carrier has prioritized the retrofitting of 67 earmarked A380 after which it will focus on 53 777s. Overall, it will refurbish 728 first class suites, upgrade more than 5,000 business class seats and install 4,000 of the airline’s new premium economy seats.
In addition to the premium economy cabin, the retrofitted aircraft feature enhanced upgrades and refreshed interiors across all its other cabin classes too.
Travellers flying on the Dubai-Mumbai route can book Emirates’ premium economy seats on EK500/501, while customers flying between Dubai and Bengaluru can book their flights on EK568/569.
The schedule of these flights is below:
| Dates | Flight | Departure | Arrival | Aircraft type |
| From 29 October | EK500 (DXB/BOM) | 21:50 | 02:15 (next day) | A380 |
| EK568 (DXB/BLR) | 21:25 | 02:30 (next day) | ||
| From 30 October | EK501 (BOM/DXB) | 04:15 | 06:05 | |
| EK569 (BLR/DXB) | 04:30 | 07:10 |
Premium economy already features on flights to nine destinations globally, including US points New York JFK, San Francisco and Houston, in addition to London Heathrow, Sydney, Auckland, Christchurch, Melbourne and Singapore.
Premium economy cabins will also debut to Los Angeles in July, taking the number of routes offering the product to 12 by the end of 2023.
Emirates launched its services to India in October 1985, from Dubai to Delhi and Mumbai.
Since then, it has grown its India operations to serve a total of nine destinations across the country including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Thiruvananthapuram.
In an exclusive interview with Business Traveller at the Arabian Travel Market earlier this year, Adnan Kazim, chief commercial officer for Emirates Airline, said that the airline expects a total of 29 aircraft to be fitted with the premium economy cabin by the end of summer this year.
