Back in July this year, we were eagerly anticipating Emirates’ long-awaited cabin revamp for its Boeing 777-300ERs – a fleet that has long lagged behind in terms of Business Class innovation with its outdated 2-3-2 seating configuration in this cabin.

While we hoped for a groundbreaking upgrade, what we got was disappointing to say the least.

Instead of an all-new product, Emirates effectively opted to retrofit the same Business Class product it introduced on its Airbus A380s back in 2008 – seats that, while luxurious in their time, now feel decidedly out of step with the latest industry products.

There was hope, however. With brand new Airbus A350s joining the fleet in late 2024, and entering service in early 2025 – would we see a brand new Business Class on these factory-fresh aircraft instead?

Well the answer is no – but that’s not the end of the story.

A350s get A380-style Business Class – for now

Emirates’ new Airbus A350, which will enter service between Dubai and Edinburgh from 3rd January 2025, has the staggered 1-2-1 seating in Business Class that first debuted on the Airbus A350 in July 2008.

Thankfully the latest version of that product is offered, now dubbed ‘S Lounge seats’, inspired by the Mercedes S Class. These have some enhancements even compared to the latest Boeing 777 Business Class refits, including wireless charging at the side console, USB-C sockets, and additional storage.

The A350s are also equipped with new Ka-band ViaSat Global Xpress (GX) satellite Wi-Fi, including improved Wireless Access Points (WAPs) onboard, which Emirates says will mean “more customers can connect at the same time with the potential to enjoy up to 10 times the current total aircraft bandwidth on average”.

Nonetheless, these seats are effectively a 16-year-old underlying design, and lack the latest expectations in Business Class, like closing privacy doors.

They do, however, provide consistency across the Airbus A380, Airbus A350 and retrofitted Boeing 777 fleets, including the carrier’s trademark in-seat ‘minibar’, and 20-inch 4K and 4K HDR in-flight entertainment screens.

The hard product, however, falls far short of competitors like Qatar Airways’ closed-door Qsuite – set to receive an update in 2025 – or offerings from airlines like Qantas, which has chosen the Safran Unity seat for its upcoming Airbus A350s.

Singapore Airlines, tired of waiting for Boeing 777-9 deliveries to begin, has also decided to retrofit its long-haul Airbus A350s with brand new closed-door Business Class seats, starting in 2026.

In addition to its first Airbus A350 delivery last month, a further nine Emirates A350s have already been built, two of which are undergoing flight testing at the time of writing.

Based on production line allocation, the airline’s A350 fleet should stand at around 20 aircraft by the end of 2025, with all 65 of its total order due to be in service by early 2028.

Two different versions

Emirates will operate its future 65-strong fleet of Airbus A350s in two different configurations, starting with the ‘Regional’ version, followed by an ‘Ultra Long-Haul’ variant.

Emirates Airbus A350 Configurations
Cabin	Regional Aircraft	Ultra LH Aircraft
Business	32	32
Premium Economy	21	28
Economy	259	238
Total Seats	312	298

Don’t be confused by the ‘Ultra Long-Haul’ designation for later deliveries. This term is used by Emirates primarily to denote aircraft that have a crew rest facility installed.

In this configuration, an extra row in Premium Economy increases that cabin’s capacity to 28 seats. Meanwhile, Economy Class loses 21 seats, with the reduction partly making room for seven additional Premium Economy seats, and partly to accommodate the crew rest compartment.

These are not the A350-900 ULR aircraft flown by Singapore Airlines, which have an increased fuel capacity, a deactivated forward cargo hold, and the capability to operate non-stop flights of up to 20 hours.

Emirates plans to deploy its ‘Regional’ A350s, including the first already delivered, on flights lasting up to 12 hours. Meanwhile, its ‘Ultra Long-Haul’ variant will be used for flights lasting up to 16 hours.

New Business Class

Luckily the rather uninspiring ‘new’ Business Class on Emirates’ A350s will not be the aircraft’s final product for the type.

A brand new Business Class is also in the works, which is slated to include closing privacy doors, and will likely also be fitted to the carrier’s upcoming Boeing 777-9 aircraft, if Boeing ever delivers them (based on original delivery schedules, Emirates was supposed to have 85 777Xs in its fleet by now!).

In an exclusive interview with UK site Head for Points in early 2024, Emirates President and CEO Sir Tim Clark confirmed that while the initial batch of A350s would indeed effectively have the A380 Business Class seats, a brand new product will feature on later deliveries.

“We’re going to do the best we can with our business cabin, it will be a 1-2-1 layout rather than 2-3-2, spacious. In the early stage it will replicate what we do on the A380 on the upper deck in business, but with slightly more room and more modern technology both in the design and build of it.

“The next stage after [the initial A350 deliveries] will be a new design for business class. I’m not going to say what it is, but I just wish that we had a patent on the doors that we designed for the A340-500 suites because everybody’s putting doors on now!”

Sir Tim Clark, Emirates CEO, to Head for Points

It seems as though whatever new seat Emirates is planning for this cabin, closing privacy doors are indeed part of the design.

With the carrier’s upcoming A350 ULH variant stretching its legs to 16-hour routes, it also seems likely that it’s these aircraft that will see the new Business Class installed – though that hasn’t been confirmed.

The A350 ULH aircraft are due for delivery from around June or July 2025, according to Clark, which means we might see the new seats rolled out in around six months from now.

Business Class on these aircraft will be by Safran Seats, with that company’s lineup including the Safran Unity that Emirates’ partner Qantas is installing on its upcoming Airbus A350s, arriving in 2026.

The manufacturer also offers other closed-door Business Class products including the Safran Versa, used by Air France on its refitted Boeing 777s, and the Safran Fusio, used by All Nippon Airways on its latest retrofitted long-haul Boeing 777-300ERs.

All of these options would be big improvements on Emirates’ current rehashed-A380 product, so we’re very interested to see what the carrier has gone for, since it will also be an indication of what we expect to see on its mammoth 205-strong Boeing 777X fleet in the years ahead.

Premium Economy

One nice development on the Emirates Airbus A350 is that the carrier is not squeezing a 2-4-2 layout in this cabin on the narrower aircraft, like Singapore Airlines has done.

Instead here a more spacious 2-3-2 configuration is installed across three rows, with 21 seats in total.

As mentioned above, later ‘Ultra Long-Haul’ versions of this aircraft will see an additional Premium Economy row, for 28 seats in this cabin.

Premium Economy on the Emirates A350 has 39 inches of pitch and 19.5 inches of seat width.

That’s one inch more legroom than Singapore Airlines offers for its A350 Premium Economy seats, and half an inch of additional width.

Each seat also has a 6-way adjustable headrest, leg and footrests, while a 13.3 inch 4K personal in-flight entertainment screen is also offered.

This product was first introduced in December 2020 on the airline’s latest Airbus A380 cabin refits.

Premium Economy is still not a product we particularly value (industry-wide), but for those who appreciate the option it certainly looks to be among the better ones out there.

Much like its recent Boeing 777-300ER upgrade program, Emirates has chosen to equip its new Airbus A350 aircraft with the same Business Class seat currently featured on its Airbus A380, albeit with a few minor technological and design updates.

Some enhancements over original versions include wireless charging and additional storage, but this remains effectively a 16-year-old seat design.

The good news is that the airline has already confirmed this isn’t the only Business Class seat that will feature on the A350, with later models – likely the ‘Ultra Long-Haul’ ones arriving from mid-2025 – featuring a brand new product that’s set to incorporate closing privacy doors.

Meanwhile in Emirates’ new Premium Economy cabin, a spacious 2-3-2 configuration on the Airbus A350 is great to see, with many airlines – including SIA – squeezing in 2-4-2 on this aircraft type.

(Cover Photo: Emirates)