Inside Emirates’ latest plane: Will the Airbus A350 fly to New Zealand?

Emirates has taken delivery of its first Airbus A350, which it says marks a new era for the airline’s future.

It is the first new aircraft type to enter the fleet since 2008 and is the third type to join the Airbus A380 super jumbo and Boeing 777.

target="_self">The airline will operate the first of its A350 flights closer to its Dubai home base but an ultra-long-range version of the plane entering the fleet could work in the New Zealand market, perhaps via a stopover in Australia or in Asia.

The airline maintains it is early days for its network planning with the longer range aircraft and its New Zealand country manager Chris Lethbridge says his preference would be for any A350 flights to complement the daily A380 services to Auckland and Christchurch (via Sydney) from Dubai rather than replace any of the big planes.

“I’m fiercely protective of our beautiful A380 that comes to Auckland and Christchurch every day so if it was to come to New Zealand it would certainly be in addition to,” he said.

“And the key is to get the aircraft operating.”

Wellington Airport will be more capable of handling twin-aisle long-haul planes after safety run-off areas have been modified and has mentioned Emirates as a potential new airline into the capital.

Lethbridge said he was pleased the airport was committing to the project and the possibility of Emirates landing there would be “a conversation that’s going to be had one day.”

What’s onboard

The Emirates A350 regional aircraft that starts flights to Edinburgh in January will have 312 seats and will feature three travel classes – Business, Premium Economy and Economy Class. The configuration has 32 next generation Business Class seats, 21 seats in Premium Economy, and 259 Economy Class seats for the initial short to medium haul aircraft. Its ULR planes will have a heavier premium emphasis with 298 seats in total.

There are 32 Business Class seats on Emirates' new A350 planes in a 1-2-1 configuration.

The suites and seats look similar to those on A380s with new in flight entertainment (IFE), faster Wifi and new blinds and while Business Class doesn’t have the lounge bar of the double-decker planes, it does have a snack display area.

• Business Class on the Emirates A350 features luxurious leather lie-flat seats, called the “S Lounge seats”, inspired by the Mercedes S Class. The seat pitch is 44 inches and the seat width is 21 inches. Each seat has a 20-inch 4k screen.

• Premium Economy features highly customised seats with six-way adjustable headrest, leg and footrests. The seat pitch is 39 inches and the seat width is 19.5 inches. Each seat has a 13.3-inch 4k screen.

• Economy Class has new six-way adjustable headrest, a seat pitch is 31-32 inches (around standard for most longhaul flights) and the seat width is 18.4 inches. Each seat has a 13.3-inch 4k screen.

Emirates says its IFE offers the best picture quality on any aircraft with ultra-responsive touchscreens for seamless navigation and a vast media selection – up to double the current content capacity.

New features like “eye comfort mode” to reduce blue light exposure, the ability to skip credits and intros on videos, enhanced live TV, and simplified volume and brightness controls.

The A350 features a high-performance, new-generation antennae which links to ViaSat’s Global Xpress (GX) satellite network and means “uninterrupted global connectivity across all destinations”, including over the North Pole for flights going to the Americas. A new user interface on Ice has been designed in partnership with Thales and advocacy groups for visually impaired customers, to ensure all customers have an intuitive, high-quality inflight entertainment experience.

This means visually impaired customers can access audio-cue navigation assistance, voice metadata feedback, touch and swipe gesturing support and presents the large selection of audio-descriptive (AD) content available on IFE.

In November 2019, Emirates announced an order of 50 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, adding a further 15 in 2023.

Emirates is the world’s largest international airline, and serves over 140 destinations.

“The 65 new A350s enable Emirates to serve a range of new markets, not only in the region but also on long-haul missions of up to 15 hours of flying time from Dubai,” the airline said.

While the plane won’t be operating here in the foreseeable future, Lethbridge said there would be plenty of opportunities for Kiwis to fly on it through connections in Dubai.

The A350 will initially operate from Dubai to nine destinations, Bahrain, Kuwait, Muscat, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Colombo, Lyon, Bologna and Edinburgh. The airline says the aircraft features the latest design, including key motifs like the illuminated Ghaf Tree – the symbolic tree of the UAE, and Emirates’ signature bronze and gold interior touches, combined with crisp cream leather and wood grain for a neutral palette. It has customised mood lighting.

It also says it has the quietest twin-aisle cabin of any aircraft.

The New Zealand market outlook

Lethbridge said demand this past year got a shot in the arm from travel to the America’s Cup in Barcelona (Emirates has been a long-standing sponsor of Team New Zealand) which helped reinforce a booking pattern that is seeing Kiwis travel outside the peak European summer. They are also far more willing to spend more to travel in premium cabins in the A380 after the pandemic.

“These days there’s a change in mindset where they’re more into the experiential things in their life rather than material things. They’re happy to pay a little bit more and, and, and travel up the front and I guess when you’ve got a product that, that can accommodate them that means its been a good year.”

Demand for Premium Economy had been strong and throughout the plane there were still many last-minute bookings.

He said bookings out of New Zealand look strong for next year and prices were stable. He said that if travellers saw the dates they wanted early in planning at the fare they were prepared to pay, they should book as aircraft were filling fast.

Travel to Europe had benefitted from some weakness to the United States where the exchange rate and on-ground costs were deterring Kiwis.

But Emirates’ inbound market for tourists to New Zealand was not as strong as before the pandemic. The main British and German markets had not yet recovered and Lethbridge said he was concerned that fee rises, such as the International Visitor Levy going up three times to $100, could be a deterrent, especially for larger family groups.

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.