A380 in business would be my alternative. I'm likely to book in the next week or so and will probably risk the B777 to STN. Thanks.

It appears A6-EBK was retired from the fleet today, it was flown to TLV as EK2515. As this is an owned Emirates frame (in other words, not a 36NER as other 777's that have gone for cargo conversions for Kalitta have been), I wonder if A6-EBK is one of the 777-300ER's that are going to be used by Emirates SkyCargo?

It sure looks that way. Articles on the subject originally said that EK's freighters would be converted at AUH once the IAI line was up and running there. I would guess that plans have changed and they must be converting some at TLV instead.

On another note, it looks like EXN, EXO, and EXP could be on track for delivery before the end of the year. Hopefully we will see another route announcement soon...

rumors are swirling about the possible order of a350-1000 in next week's Dubai Air Show? Is the Emirates 777X order in danger? I get Tim Clark must be really frustrated and impatient with the 777X program when he finally decides on ordering the aircraft that he has been hesitant to take in the previous years.

Wifi
 

Bloomberg says Starlink will be announced during the Dubai Airshow.

A380 - business class
 

I'm shortly planning to book London to Dubai, Dubai to Osaka, 2 people travelling, business class, for October next year, return. Would prefer Gatwick, but Heathrow OK, Stansted less than ideal. Anything to know about which airports/flights would have the most recent business class, or any other warnings about getting old aircraft/seats please? In fact any advice... Thanks,

For LGW/KIX, the best option is EK16/EK316. EK16 is normally an A380, I have had a quick look at October 2026 and that seems to hold true. I take EK16 in J at least twice a year and it’s always fine. It’s the 3 class version of the A380, so not the ‘refreshed’ business cabin, but the difference is small. Ex LHR, he EK2/EK316 option will have the refreshed J. In my case I would not entertain that, as LGW is within the free CD range whilst LHR is not. Ex STN is a refurbished 77W, so new J (but no bar).

Emirates has orderd 65 more 777-9 on the first day of the Dubai Air Show! What would they ever do to that so many aircraft?!

I’m no expert, but my guess is they’ll fly them to places 😂.

Replace the old B777.

Starlink
 

First aircraft with Starlink wifi is a refurbished Boeing 777 registered as A6-EPF.

A6-EXB Tech Edinburgh
 

EK24 EDI/DXB cancelled on 16th.
A350 A6-EXB went tech ?????
Still on the ground as we speak.
Any idea what the issue was ?

Yes, it could be replaced by the older B777 aircraft. Who knows?!?

.
Im hearing it was due to a valve for the APU not closing and as such the APU would have ingested deicing agent during the deicing process.

A total of 60 A380s and 51 B777s will go through their next phase of retrofit starting August 2026.

Some of the additions during this phase include:

• New onboard lounges on the 60 A380s
• New 4K IFE system
• USB-C and wireless charging
• New economy class eats with adjustable 8-way headrests

https://www.emirates.com/media-centr...-enhancements/

So these airframes are hopefully the older ones with ICE1 & 2.

There was no mention of the A350’s getting it in the press release. Any idea if they’re actually going to get starlink?

Emirates orders 8 additional A350-900s.

Source: https://www.emirates.com/media-centr...airshow-2025/#

From the above link :-Emirates aircraft fleet and orderbook – 19 November 2025

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...1f9a5058da.png

The B787s must have been on order for 10 years :D

Can anyone confirm whether A6-EQH has now also been fitted with Starlink?

It was sitting in front of EK Engineering Hangar C for the past two days and is about to fly to KWI.

For reference QR was able to perform a Starlink refit on a B77W in ~9.5 hours.

A6-EPF flew its first rotation with Starlink to DUB yesterday and is currently returning to DXB.

Whoever is maintaining the sheet with the fleet status at the moment might consider adding Starlink? Great resource! :tu:

I'm flying to SGN which seems to be a lottery of 73L or 77L

Does anyone know how far the game changer suite aircraft retrofits are progressing as of now?

Emirates and Starlink
 

after announcement, now how many Emirates B777’s have Starlink service?

Is anyone missing the "Special Routes" tab on the Fleet guide doc?

EK's rapidly changing plans made it increasingly hard to maintain and the list of routes with PE available has grown significantly since it was first announced so it made sense to drop it.

Noticed long-stored A6-EDR was undergoing an “idle run” at DWC this morning, its transponder was active on flightradar. After a long pause in aircraft returning from DWC, looks like we might be about to see the next A380 do just that.

And A6-EDR has returned to DXB today, just in time for Christmas

The first of the converted 3-class (J/W/Y) A380s appear to be loaded in the schedules from June onwards, indicating conversions taking place starting May. The economy class cabin on the upper-deck will be converted into the new premium economy cabin. All routes except CPH will gradually receive the refurbished frames between June and October 2026.

I would guess the reason we are not seeing CPH loaded with the new cabin is that the A380 on the route will be replaced with a double daily frequency of another aircraft type. As we had previously seen, a tentative schedule for EK153/154 was published for summer 2025 that was a late afternoon departure ex-DXB.

+except PRG as well.

Excluding any schedule updates between now and then, PRG is supposed to be the first route with the new 3-class 388.

starting when?

June 1 for PRG. Also seeing it may temporarily operate AMM as early as April.

Lots still to be announced by EK, including the official launch of the 3-class 77L which is supposed to be entering service in less than two weeks.

It looks like they are changing EK368 from A380 to B777 after January 16. Anyone knows if they will refurbish that one to new 3 class layout? Or rather switching to B777 for lower season...

The A380 will back on flight EK368/ 369 from 25th of February

Appears I was slightly incorrect. The first converted 3-class (J/W/Y) A380 will be in service by mid-April. I would be on the look out for a 2-class frame going into the hangar around the beginning of Feb for a 5C check and retrofit. My guess is EOP may be the first frame.

Emirates has reported SEA (EK229/230) will be switching to a Boeing 777-200LR instead from the Northern Summer schedule (29 Mar onwards).

The first Boeing 777-200LR has come out of refurbishment.

Question though, are the old Weber seats removed from Economy and replaced with the Safran Z400 seats (I think similar enough to the ones on EQH-EQP and EVN-EVS)? Or is that still retained despite Premium Economy installed?

I can confirm A6-EPD has been fitted with starlink. I flew on this on Saturday and it was fantastic. The WiFi was disabled as we flew over India (quite annoying), but other than that it worked perfectly.

I wish we had a resource somewhere that allowed us to see exactly which aircraft has been fitted with starlink.

I've added this to a Wiki on https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emir...-emirates.html