Emirates to deploy Premium Economy cabins on all of its triple-daily services to New York-JFK

Emirates has announced that starting December 1, 2025, all three of its daily services between Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and New York, the United States, including the one-stop via Milan, Italy, will have premium economy cabins.

On September 8, 2025, Emirates said that starting December 1, 2025, flight EK201 between Dubai International Airport (DXB) and New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) will have premium economy cabins. 

The daily itinerary, operated by Airbus A380 aircraft, will add more premium economy seats on the airline’s connections to JFK. Flight EK203/204, another daily A380 service, already has premium economy cabins flying across the Atlantic Ocean.

Emirates also has the fifth-freedom route from DXB to JFK via Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP), flight EK205/206. From November 10, 2025, the third A380 itinerary to the Big Apple will also have premium economy cabins onboard.

According to the carrier, by March 2026, its premium economy cabins on its A350, A380, and Boeing 777-300ERs will be present on flights to 68 airports across the world, “underscoring the airline's commitment to investing in the very best customer experience in the sky and adding more premium cabin options, consistency and choice across geographies.”

Emirates’ A380s, which had been retrofitted with its new cabins, have 56 Premium economy seats, laid out in a 2-4-2 configuration. They are located at the front of the main – lower – deck.

Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that in September 2025, the airline’s double-deckers, equipped with premium economy seats, operated flights to 21 airports from DXB, including on the one-stop to Christchurch International Airport (CHC) via Sydney Airport (SYD). These are displayed in the map below:

The DXB-based carrier’s premium economy cabins were introduced into service on August 1, 2022, flying from DXB to London Heathrow Airport (LHR), Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), and SYD.

Emirates began installing premium economy seats as part of its cabin retrofit program, which was announced on November 16, 2021, with the airline promising to upgrade the interiors of 52 A380 and 53 777-300ER aircraft with new seats between business class and economy class. In August 2022, it clarified that 67 A380s would have premium economy seats, and in May 2024, it added another 43 A380 and 28 777-300ER aircraft to the queue to be fitted with new cabins, with the retrofit program expanding to 191 aircraft.

Its A350-900s, of which it currently has nine after having taken delivery of its first on November 25, 2024, come with premium economy seats from the factory. The widebodies can welcome up to 32 business, 21 premium economy, and 259 economy class seats.

As of March 31, 2025, Emirates had 29 and 20 retrofitted A380 and 777-300ERs, respectively, with the group’s annual report detailing that the cabin overhaul program will now include a total of 219 aircraft.