Starting in December 2022, Emirates will begin flying to five additional cities with its refurbished A380 jets, including the airline’s newest Premium Economy cabins.

Melbourne, Auckland, New York, San Francisco, and Singapore will get the airline’s Premium Economy seating. The airline’s current plans will also see the return of 85 A380s by the end of the year, which it sees as “well-timed to satisfy the year-end travel demand”.

As stated in a press statement issued by Emirates on 1 September 2022, the newly refurbished A380s will begin servicing flights to New York on 1 December 2022, while flights to Auckland will commence on 15 January 2023. After making their debut in Melbourne on 1 February, the upgraded A380s will begin service to Singapore on 1 March 2023.

On 15 February, the refurbished A380 will begin service to San Francisco, making it the second US city it flies to. In addition, Emirates will update its schedules to London Heathrow and Sydney.

As an expansion of its Dubai–Sydney route, “Emirates will also launch A380 services with a Premium Economy debut to Christchurch on 26 March 2023, operating with EK 412 and EK 413,” the airline said.

Emirates visitors will get an option to test out the Premium Economy cabin across 42 destinations by the end of March 2023. Meanwhile, the airline plans to have its refurbished flagship A380 aircraft cover around a third of its network. By the end of 2022, the airline hopes to have restored at least 75% of its A380 network from before the pandemic.

“In tandem, the airline is optimising its network to meet robust demand and enhancing its existing schedules to over 400 A380 departures from Dubai, offering 460,000 weekly A380 seats by March 2023, including 81,000 seats across its premium cabins, offering the very best in customer comfort,” Emirates explained.

At the beginning of August 2022, Emirates announced that it would spend more than $2 billion modernising its passenger cabins, including a new “Fly Better” programme to convert more than 120 passenger flights with updated interiors.

The airline spends the vast bulk of its money on updating its planes’ cabins.

New or reupholstered seats, new panelling, flooring, and other amenities will be added to the cabins, and Emirates will upgrade its in-flight systems. Starting November 2022, the carrier aims to update the interior cabins of 67 Airbus A380s and 53 Boeing 777 passenger planes, with a single aircraft rolling out from Emirates Engineering Centre into active service every 16 days.