Emirates today began its two-year retrofit programme with work starting on the first of 120 aircraft earmarked for a full cabin interior upgrade and the installation of the airline’s latest Premium-Economy seats.
After completing flight EK928 from Cairo to Dubai on Monday, November 1, A6-EVM was steered to Hanger-E at the Emirates Engineering Centre where a team of specialised engineers began prepping the aircraft for its makeover.
In addition to recruiting 190 additional staff for the project, Emirates is also engaged with 62 key partners and suppliers who have hired hundreds more skilled hands for the retrofit programme.
After months of meticulous planning and detailed test runs on an actual A380 aircraft, engineers took stock and requested 2,200 part numbers. In turn, Emirates’ procurement team went into overdrive and raised 12,600 purchase orders for the initial phase of the programme. At the Emirates Engineering Centre, purpose-built workshops have been set up and stocked with parts and equipment for the project.
For the next 16 days teams of engineers and technicians will take apart the entire cabin interior of the A380 and put it back together again in a carefully planned and tested sequence.
