Emirates airline has started its two-year retrofit programme, with the first of its A380 superjumbo aircraft arriving for a full cabin interior upgrade and installation of premium economy seats.
The Dubai airline is carrying out a $2 billion upgrade of the interior cabins of 120 Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft.
“After completing flight EK928 from Cairo to Dubai on Monday, A6-EVM was steered to Hanger E at the Emirates Engineering Centre where a team of specialised engineers began prepping the aircraft for its makeover,” Emirates said on Tuesday.
The airline has hired 190 extra staff to work on the project, while it has also engaged with 62 key partners for the programme.
The entire cabin interior of the A380 will be taken apart during the next 16 days and rebuilt in a “carefully planned and tested sequence”, Emirates said.
Window seats in the economy section will be removed first to free up space for the cabin's side panels to be taken out. The panels will then be laminated in Emirates’ latest colour tones.
To make room for the 56 premium economy class seats, 88 economy seats at the front of the main deck will be removed.
“On the upper deck, business and first-class seats will be dismantled and loaded on to a modified catering truck to lower them to the ground, where other vehicles will shuttle them to bespoke workshops,” Emirates said.
“Business class seats will be repainted and reupholstered with new leather at Emirates Engineering, while first-class seats will be sent to a specialist at Dubai World Central for refurbishing.”
All carpets and floorings will be replaced before the new seats are put back in.
The aircraft will be inspected and certified by aviation authorities before it re-enters service.
The second aircraft scheduled for a makeover, A6-EUW, will roll into Emirates Engineering Centre on December 1.
As the project progresses, engineers will work simultaneously on two aircraft. This means that every eight days, one aircraft will be grounded and towed to Emirates Engineering for retrofitting.
All 67 A380s earmarked for the retrofit programme will be back in service by May 23, 2024, according to Emirates.
It will then begin work on 53 of its Boeing 777s. By March 2025, all 120 retrofitted aircraft will be back in service.
Premium economy is currently available on A380 routes to London, Paris and Sydney.
The airline has announced plans to introduce the premium economy service on its routes to New York, San Francisco, Melbourne, Auckland and Singapore by the end of March 2023.
Emirates expects to return to 100 per cent of operations and network capacity in 2023 as demand for travel and tourism recovers from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
It carried more than 10 million passengers on about 35,000 flights to 130 destinations during the summer.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Boulder shooting victims
• Denny Strong, 20
• Neven Stanisic, 23
• Rikki Olds, 25
• Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
• Suzanne Fountain, 59
• Teri Leiker, 51
• Eric Talley, 51
• Kevin Mahoney, 61
• Lynn Murray, 62
• Jody Waters, 65
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The specs: 2018 Renault Koleos
Price, base: From Dh77,900
Engine: 2.5L, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 170hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 233Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.3L / 100km
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More on animal trafficking
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
On Instagram: @WithHopeUAE
Although social media can be harmful to our mental health, paradoxically, one of the antidotes comes with the many social-media accounts devoted to normalising mental-health struggles. With Hope UAE is one of them.
The group, which has about 3,600 followers, was started three years ago by five Emirati women to address the stigma surrounding the subject. Via Instagram, the group recently began featuring personal accounts by Emiratis. The posts are written under the hashtag #mymindmatters, along with a black-and-white photo of the subject holding the group’s signature red balloon.
“Depression is ugly,” says one of the users, Amani. “It paints everything around me and everything in me.”
Saaed, meanwhile, faces the daunting task of caring for four family members with psychological disorders. “I’ve had no support and no resources here to help me,” he says. “It has been, and still is, a one-man battle against the demons of fractured minds.”
In addition to With Hope UAE’s frank social-media presence, the group holds talks and workshops in Dubai. “Change takes time,” Reem Al Ali, vice chairman and a founding member of With Hope UAE, told The National earlier this year. “It won’t happen overnight, and it will take persistent and passionate people to bring about this change.”
