Emirates rolls out US$5 billion...

Refurbished Boeing 777 four-class aircraft will be added to South Korean and UK routes

Dubai-based airline Emirates is extending cities served by its refurbished Boeing 777, with flights rolling out to Seoul in South Korea and London Stansted in the UK.

The four-class aircraft with upgraded cabins for Economy, Premium Economy, Business and First will operate between Dubai and Seoul from 14 April 2025, while Stansted will become the third UK airport to welcome the new 777 from 7 May 2025, joining Edinburgh and Heathrow.

Emirates had originally planned to give 191 Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 aircraft a full facelift, but that number has increased to around 220, airline president Tim Clark said at ITB Berlin in March 2025. Delays in deliveries of new aircraft from manufacturers like Boeing left Emirates with “no choice” as it spends US$5 billion on the upgrades.

In March 2025, Emirates launched three flights giving the airline the largest network in East Asia for any non-Asian airline, with 269 weekly flights to 24 destinations.

Emirates says that by July 2025, travellers heading east to Asia will be able to book 3,150 weekly seats in Premium Economy to Tokyo-Narita, Tokyo-Haneda, Osaka, Singapore, Seoul and Shenzhen.

European destinations already served by the retrofitted 777 include Brussels, Geneva, Zurich, Vienna and Athens. Riyadh in Saudi became the first GCC destination to get the refreshed aircraft in October 2024.

The Emirates Boeing 777 entered refurbishment in early July and debuted in August 2024 on a flight to Geneva. The refurbishment took 37 days and around 10,000 hours.

The new configuration has 24 Premium Economy seats in a 2-4-2 layout, with 19.5-inch-wide cream leather seats. The Business Class cabin offers 38 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, with seats converting to flatbeds. The new Economy Class has 256 seats.

Four-class Emirates Boeing 777 has 40 Business class seats