Where does it say EK have withdrawn First Class? Their own booking engine has it showing on the morning flight from August through to December. Anything (F, J or Y) beyond 20 December cannot be booked on the EK website. Maybe we should all be panicking that we can't book economy or business so it must have been withdrawn.
BTW it's only 8 F seats on a 77W, not 12.
Looks like EK will have to continue paying for my chauffeur drive cars to & from that more northerly airport we're not allowed to talk about. I sometimes fly EK first and if in business I hate the seats on the 77W so fly on the 388.