Originally Posted by
aster
Hmm, first to contemplate 11-abreast in A380 econ? They've already done the same on the 77W, squeezing in a 3-4-3 layout compared to SQ's 3-3-3.
Y is probably not much different depending on the aircraft. It's probably quite painful on the 77W and if EK's A380 goes in the same direction then things will really look bad. Suites also lose out to SQ to be honest, not by a large margin and both have their good points but SQ is still the top choice (not taking prices into account).
On a side note my apologies about the whole 'who was first to have suites' issue - I was thinking of the 'big bird' in the sky, the grandest plane that every A380 operator can proudly display as its flagship aircraft. But if we look at smaller planes then I agree that others might have plugged a suites-like product ahead of the A380 ever entering into service...
Remember the social stratification of Dubai: a large truly rich class and an even larger poor, immigrant class so naturally, EK has figured out that it can optimize its Y class revenues by being able to offer more seats at lower prices. To EK's credit, they aren't the only airline doing it on 777s (for example, AA, AF, EY, KL, 9W, and the list goes on).
My point, however, is that EK is an extremely affluent airline and overall, EK and "budget airline" just don't go together, because despite a tight Y configuration, it provides 4-course meals (they used to do 5-course meals in Y but that hasn't been the case lately), menus, and even amenity kits to passengers booked in its lowest class-of-service. Further, even Hollywood, which as we know doesn't have the smartest cookies haha, tends to favor Emirates as having the world's most luxurious First Class (think of Sex and the City 2... the girls were flying to AUH but the design of the First Class cabin was clearly Emirates, not Etihad's).
To specifically address the issue of 11 seats across the A380s, EK has made it clear that it would only do so for the high density, 630-seat version which wouldn't really be assigned to say, markets like JFK and LHR served by the standard 3-class A380 version. Again, given the large number of poor immigrants working in Dubai, from a strategy perspective, I can understand why EK would want to offer that many seats to attract more immigrants who are looking for the cheapest fare, not luxury. This isn't a new concept really, before the jet era, it was no secret that ultra luxurious lines like Cunard and White Star made a significant portion of their profits from Third Class/Steerage passengers who required little space in exchange for low rates.
Now on the other end of the spectrum, is it excessive to have 6 cabin crews looking after a maximum of 14 F passengers? Of course! But as several critics have stated, Dubai and Emirates are like Singapore on steroids. And yes, EK is not afraid to show off and they don't care that Skytrax doesn't want to award them a 5 star rating when EK is already much better than QR.