Emirates looking at plans for no-frills economy fares
YOU might soon have to pay separately for your food and luggage when flying cattle class with Emirates, the airline’s boss has revealed.
EMIRATES is considering a massive overhaul of its economy class that will strip back perks like food and baggage allowance and let passengers pay only for what they want.
Emirates president Sir Tim Clark discussed the possibility of low-frills economy fares on the world’s largest international airline to cater to passengers who wanted to fly without all the bells and whistles.
Currently, economy on Emirates is a full-service experience, featuring meals, in-flight entertainment, generous baggage allowance, blankets and amenity kits on selected flights.
But the airline said not all passengers needed those perks, even when flying long-haul.
“We have many, many passengers who travel great distances with just a backpack,” Mr Clark told
Airline Ratings.
“Like the software engineer living in Seattle working for Amazon who just wants to fly home to Hyderabad to visit his family for three days.
“He just comes on board with a small backpack — no more.”
Mr Clark said as part of a pricing and product review, the airline was looking at unbundling fares so passengers could buy a basic seat and then select and pay for add-ons they wanted, such as meals.
“This is not about extracting more out of our passengers; it’s about giving them what they want,” he said.
“We recognise the demand for passengers who just want a bit of this and bit of that.”
While the move towards low-cost fares is under consideration, in a separate move, Emirates confirmed it would introduce premium economy class to its aircraft from 2020.
The new class — a step above economy, but not as lavish as business — would be on the Airbus A380 superjumbos Emirates ordered this year, the first six of which due for delivery by 2020, Mr Clark recently announced.
It will also be on its new, smaller Boeing 777s, with seats to be retrofitted on some existing aircraft.
“We will be installing premium economy into those and it will be an Emirates premium economy, so it will be special,” he said.
The new class is expected to offer more legroom than standard economy at a slightly higher price, and aims to capture travellers willing to spend slightly more for their flights.
It will also feature bespoke “sleeperette” seats, which the airline had been working on with the “higher-percentile male and female” in mind, Mr Clark told
Australian Business Traveller.
On the double-deck A380s, which fly from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, about 56 premium economy seats will be installed in the front of the bottom deck.
Between 26 and 28 premium economy seats will be on the Boeing 777s.