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Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad are competing fiercely with new cabins and seats after spending around $US100 billion ($142 billion) on upgrades, even as conflict in the Middle East pressures them to lure passengers.
Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad are spending around $US100 billion ($142 billion) on new cabins and seats and competing fiercely to outgun each other, even as conflict in the Middle East pressures the Gulf carriers to lure passengers.
Competition in the region is crazy, said Etihad CEO Antonoaldo Neves at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai this month. All three carriers showed off new products at the travel trade show. Emirates is targeting the neglected class. Sir Tim Clark, the Briton who runs Emirates, reckons airlines have neglected economy-class travellers by concentrating on suites, bars and showers for business-class and first-class flyers.
Emirates Unveils New Economy Seat Features
He unveiled a new economy seat that is a lot more comfortable, with more features, functionality and products. It comes in bright colours, unlike on most airlines, and has a new U-Dream headrest that adjusts both vertically and horizontally, with thick sides that fold down to create the perfect neck rest.
Sir Tim already operates the best premium-economy cabins on any carrier, downstairs at the front of Emirates Airbus A380 superjumbos or between business class and economy on its Airbus A350s and Boeing 777s. He has gone one better now by introducing a new seat that has the U-Dream head rest but also motorised recline and a large motorised divider between each seat to create greater privacy.
I sat in the seat in Dubai on Monday and it reminded me of the cradle seats that passed for business class in the 1980s. Premium-economy passengers get new Aveda amenity kits and the best wines in that cabin on any airline, including a Chablis Premier Cru 2024, a 2014 Bordeaux and Wiston Estate English sparkling.
Etihad Introduces New First Class Products
Etihad has eschewed premium economy and is instead introducing four rows of extra-legroom economy seats on its new A330neos, the only Gulf carrier to offer this. It is also doubling down on first class. At the Arabian Travel Market, it introduced new first-class products for both its new Airbus A330neo wide-body jets and its Airbus A321LR narrow-body jets.
Both come with doors that close for privacy, a new colour palette of greys, beiges and greens, a vanity mirror with a drawer full of ESPA products, wireless charging and snack tray. This takes Etihad total first-class offerings up to five: a super first class three-room apartment, The Residence, and large Apartment suites with a separate bed and seat, plus showers, on its A380s; a first suite on its Boeing 787s; and the new suites on the A330neos and the A321LR.
Etihad says demand for first class is rising. Wealth is there. People want to go first class. We will offer seamless first-class service in the right way for each aircraft on each route.
Qatar Airways Updates Qsuite Experience
Qatar Airways has updated its Qsuite experience to create a more sociable travel environment. Qatar is putting its golden eggs in the business-class basket. The latest version of its Qsuite business-class suite was on display at the show. It has a wall, containing a television screen, that divides each suite but, for the first time on any airliner, can also be folded back, allowing for a more sociable travel experience.
With the dividing walls retracted, the quartet of seats in the middle of the cabin opens up into a small room, with seats that face each other, like a restaurant table for four. Each pair of seats converts into a double bed. Another first is a lockable drawer for valuables. Riyadh Air has come up with the only business-class suite, Business Elite, that gives the Qsuite a run for its riyal.
Gulf Airlines Invest Despite Regional Conflict
The Hafawa lounge at its King Khalid hub airport in Riyadh, with a fine-dining restaurant and cigar terrace, is also upping the ante; it is the best combined business-class and first-class lounge in the Gulf. It might seem strange for the Gulf airlines to be making all these new investments, whose collective costs are around $US100 billion ($142 billion), when the war in the region is far from over.
But their bosses insist that aircraft are 70-80 per cent full, only around 10 per cent off pre-war capacity at this time of year. Bookings for the crucial northern autumn and winter season are looking quite great, as Adnan Kazim, Emirates deputy president and chief commercial officer, put it. I flew to Dubai for the Arabian Travel Market on Qatar Airways via its Doha hub, Hamad International, and there were only a handful of empty seats to and from London.
Many of those passengers are not stopping off in Dubai or Doha. The flow is really working quite well between Asia and Europe and Europe to Asia, notes Kazim, but for airlines a seat sold is a seat sold. Most governments and travel insurers have removed the Gulf states from their No fly lists. Privately, all the airline CEOs concede that a resumption of hostilities could change everything overnight, as one put it.
The Iranian drone strikes on Dubai Airport at the start of the conflict loom large in the memory of many travellers. But as the fragile peace just about holds, the arms race at 39,000ft shows no signs of letting up. Indeed, Qatar Airways is planning a new first class on its forthcoming Boeing 777Xs, with what insiders say could be a suite with floor-to-ceiling walls to create a mini apartment in the sky.
Emirates will soon unveil the new bar on its 777Xs. Alas, there is no space for the showers that have been Emirates best perk on its A380s. And Etihad will open a new lounge at London Heathrow and its sixth type of super first-class suite for the 777X and the Airbus A350, as Neves puts it. The Residence has a small cabin on the upper deck of the Airbus A380, with 56 seats arranged 2-4.
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smh:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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