Dubai-based airline Emirates is currently conducting an aircraft retrofitting programme. Per the original plan, 120 widebody jets—67 Airbus A380s and 53 Boeing 777s—were supposed to receive complete interior refurbishment. Now, the carrier has added 71 aircraft—43 A380s and 28 777s—to the tally, bumping the total to 191.

To date, Emirates has completed the refurbishment process of 22 A380s. In July 2024, the first 777 will be put through an interior upgrade journey, which will take approximately two weeks to complete. Once upgraded, every Boeing 777 will boast a four-class layout, comprising eight First Class suites, 40 Business Class seats (debut of 1-2-1 configuration), 24 Premium Economy seats and 260 Economy seats. Put together, there will be 332 seats aboard every refurbished 777. 50 Economy seats will be removed to accommodate the Premium Economy section.

Emirates says that by the time the refurbishment programme comes to a close, it will have fitted 8,104 Premium Economy seats, 1,894 refreshed First Class suites, 11,182 upgraded Business Class seats and 21,814 Economy seats. Presently, Emirates offers its new addition of Premium Economy seats on its Airbus A380 services to New York JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, London Heathrow, Sydney, Auckland, Christchurch, Melbourne, Singapore, Mumbai, Bangalore, Sao Paulo and Dubai. Early next month, Osaka will join that list. By February 2025, the list will expand to 42 cities as more refurbished aircraft and the new Airbus A350 on order start joining the airline’s fleet.

Also Read: Emirates Confirms Where It’ll Fly Its New A350 First

Adding to its ever-expanding network of international destinations, Air India has confirmed that from June 16, 2024, it will start non-stop flights between Delhi, India, and Zurich, Switzerland. Once live, it will bump the carrier’s destination count in mainland Europe to seven.

On the newly announced route, Air India will operate a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The aircraft will boast a two-class layout. The outbound flight – AI151 – will depart Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport at 14:05 and arrive in Zurich at 19:15. The return leg – AI152 – will leave Zurich Airport at 20:50 and land in India’s capital at 08:05 the next day (all times mentioned are local). This service will operate four times weekly, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Presently, Air India operates 60 weekly flights to and from six cities across mainland Europe – Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Milan, Paris and Vienna. Bookings for the Delhi-Zurich route will open progressively across all channels.

Also Read: Air India Confirms Additional Daily Flight To Phuket

The national carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Etihad Airways, has introduced reciprocal interline partnerships with five airlines: Kam Air in Afghanistan, Sky Express in Greece, Rex Airlines in Australia, Jeju Air in Korea, and Myanmar Airways International.

The agreement will benefit travellers on all carriers mentioned above. They can book an entire journey on a single ticket and have their baggage checked in to their destination. For instance, passengers from Etihad’s hub—Zayed International Airport, Abu Dhabi—can connect to the Kam Air flight to Kabul without having to claim or recheck-in their luggage.

Similarly, travellers aboard any of the two daily Etihad flights to Athens can use Sky Express’s network of 28 destinations in Greece. Rex Airlines, which serves 22 destinations across Australia, including Hobart, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, will serve passengers from Etihad’s links in Sydney and Melbourne.

Jeju Air provides similar access from Seoul to 27 destinations across seven Northeast Asian countries. Myanmar Airways International can connect passengers to Yangon and Mandalay through Etihad’s gateways in South Asia.

With the new interline partnerships active, Etihad Airways has boosted its list of global codeshare, interline and strategic partnerships with carriers to 123.

Also Read: Etihad To Fly An A380 To Paris