Dubai-based Emirates airline is planning to roll out a new premium-economy product within the next year to 18 months, according to its president Tim Clark.
Premium economy is levelled at between economy class and business class and considered as a potentially lucrative product option for airlines facing tough macroeconomic conditions.
In September, Clark said he was evaluating premium economy and ancillaries as a way to address declining yields and now he has told Air Transport World: “It has advanced. We are at the stage of finding what form it will take.”
Clark told the aviation website that the project will involve “quite a big upheaval” to adapt the hundreds of planes that Emirates operates.
“I would think within the next year to 18 months, we will have it in the airline, hopefully up and running,” he was quoted as saying.
Emirates reported on November 9 a 75 percent fall in first-half profit to AED786 million ($214 million).
The airline filled an average of 75.3 percent of seats in the six months to September 30, a decline of 3 percent.
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