Emirates has announced a redesign of its famous A380 onboard lounge, with a more modern look and extra seating being installed. The lounge, which is available to business and first class passengers on the upper deck of the A380, has become an iconic feature of Emirates’ fleet since it was launched in 2008.
The new lounge will retain the trademark horseshoe-shaped bar.
More seating will be added along the windows on both sides of the bar, which Emirates President Tim Clark says was inspired by private yacht cabins (of all things!). Overall, the new lounge will comfortably accommodate up to 26 passengers at a time, including 8 seated.
A new colour scheme will see lighter champagne colours in the cabin and on lounge seating, accented by a glossy dark wood trim. This is a big improvement from the current darker and overly-blingy décor.
Customers will continue to enjoy canapés, wines, spirits and cocktails at the bar.
Emirates will also introduce soundproof curtains to partition the lounge from the other cabins, which will be welcomed by passengers seated near the area.
Soft ambient lighting options, new window blinds with integrated LED mood lighting, and subwoofers for surround sound are also going in.
The revamped lounge is currently being installed onto one of Emirates’ brand new A380 aircraft, and will make its operational debut in July 2017. At the moment, Emirates only plans to install the new lounge on new planes. Let’s hope an upgrade to the existing lounges will happen at some point too.