Emirates is upgrading its popular A380 fleet! The largest known retrofit program in the industry is well underway at Emirates Engineering. I toured inside the A380 superjumbo during its maintenance.

Project Phoenix oversees 67 A380s and 53 Boeing 777s being refurbished. Concerning the A380, a total of 728 first class, 5,092 business class, 1,608 new premium economy, and 24,000 economy seats are involved in the procedure. The program began in November 2022 and is set to be wrapped up by May 2025.

Emirates Engineering explained that every time an A380 comes in for a six-year or 12-year check. All the seats, lavatories, galleys, and monuments are ejected to leave the entire interior bare for floor panel check. When the materials are removed, Emirates Engineering will replace or refurbish them to keep the cabin in pristine condition. After seeing an A380 under heavy maintenance check, I toured a refurbished A380 that is ready in service to see the difference.

Next, I visited the cabin interior seat shop where you can find all the seats came in bare skeleton form. The engineer also demonstrated how to inflate safety evacuation slides in just 6 seconds. Last, some of the old seat covers and materials are being turned into collectibles and memorabilia!

Emirates is looking to keep at least 90 A380s in the air by the 2030s and plans to fly the A380 until the 2040s.