Emirates to serve Riyadh route with...

Flights to Saudi capital will be exclusively flown with the refurbished, four-class cabin

Dubai-based airline Emirates is extending the rollout of its retrofitted Boeing 777s to Riyadh, with all three daily flights being served by the four-cabin aircraft.

The Saudi capital was the first city in the region to welcome the new 777 in October 2024, and the second and third daily flights will follow suit from 30 March and 7 May 2025.

Initially, the third service will be flown by the refurbished 777 six flights a week before going daily from 11 August 2025.

Riyadh will become the first city in the region to be served exclusively by the retrofitted aircraft

The new configuration has 24 Premium Economy seats in a 2-4-2 layout, with 19.5-inch-wide cream leather seats. The Business Class cabin offers 38 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, with seats converting to flatbeds. The new Economy Class has 256 seats.

First Class features fully enclosed suites with floor-to-ceiling doors for total privacy and middle seats include virtual windows for exterior views.

Emirates Boeing 777 Business Class

The Emirates Boeing 777 entered refurbishment in early July and debuted in August 2024 on a flight to Geneva. The refurbishment took 37 days and around 10,000 hours.

European destinations already served by the retrofitted 777 include Brussels, Zurich, Vienna and Athens, with London Stansted set to begin from 7 May 2025 and in Asia, services between Dubai and Seoul in South Korea to launch from 14 April 2025.

Emirates had originally planned to give 191 Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 aircraft a full facelift, but that number has increased to around 220, airline president Tim Clark said at ITB Berlin in March 2025. Delays in deliveries of new aircraft from manufacturers like Boeing left Emirates with “no choice” as it spends US$5 billion on the upgrades.

In November 2024, Emirates also introduced chauffeur services for First and Business Class passengers, the first airline offering this benefit.

Emirates operates 72 weekly flights to all four destinations in Saudi Arabia.

For more information, visit www.emirates.com

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