LONDON – UAE carrier Emirates have kicked off their yearly initiative “Veganuary” for 2023, a month long initiative promoting the vegan diet.
Since the start, Emirates have noted a 154% increase in vegan meals served onboard between the years 2021 and 2022.
The kick off
With January now upon the world, Emirates have kicked of their Veganuary-programme, promoting a vegan diet throughout the month of January.
Serving the skies with vegan meal options since the 1990s, Emirates currently has offered 180 selections catering to vegan passengers and those looking for a healthy meal onboard, and has seen over 280,000 plant-based meals consumed in the past year, as well as noticing a 154% increase in vegan meals year on year.
Emirates is known as the best airline for vegan travellers, and in 2022 Emirates invested into the development of a new First and Business Class vegan menu, in an attempt to rival acclaimed restaurants.
With the development process taking over a year at Emirates Flight Catering, a panel of highly skilled Emirates Flight Catering chefs worked closely with nutritionists in identifying ingredients from already popular dishes from around the world to develop the vegan meal options.
Vegan options are available to order and pre-order onboard and in Emirates lounges, with customers being able to request vegan meals across classes and on all Emirates flights up to 24 hours before departure.
First retrofit complete – Starting 2023 well
In recent news, AviationSource reported that Emirates recently completed their first retrofit of an Airbus A380, to match their upgraded cabin now consisting of four classes, being Economy, a brand new Premium Economy class, Business Class and First Class.
The A380 registered A6-EVM, is the first of 120 A380 aircraft that will be retrofitted by Emirates and is the beginning of the $2bn retrofit program by the airline.
What is the retrofit program?
A few months back, Emirates initiated their cabin refurbishment plans for their aircraft, for a four cabin layout rather than the previous three cabin layout which they will replace.
Emirates’ ambitious cabin retrofit program comes as a result of a multi-million dollar investment to ensure that Emirates’ customers fly better in the years ahead.
Currently, the cabin refit program is set to completely refit the cabin, as well as the installation of Emirates’ new Premium Economy Class-seats.
After landing from Cairo, Emirates’ A6-EVM, an Airbus A380, was towed to the hangar at Emirates’ Engineering Centre, where specialized engineers are preparing the aircraft for its makeover, where its cabin refurbishment has now been completed at the time of writing.
Before the official launch of the project, the airline completed numerous in-depth test runs with an actual Airbus A380 aircraft.
With the tests completed, engineers requested 2,200 part number, in which returned Emirates with an overdrive of the procurement team and 12,600 purchase orders for the initial phase of the project.
The Premium Economy cabin
Already available on selected A380 routes, Emirates’ new Premium Economy class features luxurious seats with more legroom, as well as a service to rival the Business Class of other airlines.
The Premium Economy serviced flights are on the A380 flights to destinations like Sydney, Paris and London, and as more aircraft enter the refitting programme, more customers will be able to experience the new Premium Economy class.
Currently planned, is for the carrier to introduce Premium Economy on routes to the west and east coast of the United States, with the airports being New York JFK and San Francisco.
The Premium Economy service is also planned for routes to Oceania and East-Asia, with Melbourne, SIngapore and Auckland being the selected announced routes.
