Emirates to Eliminate First Class Cabin on Fort Lauderdale Route
Emirates is currently working on updating and reconfiguring a small sub-fleet of 10 Boeing 777-200LR aircraft which it operates on very few routes, including Dubai (DXB) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL). As part of the reconfiguration, these aircraft will lose the first-class cabin as well as the middle seat in business class.
Per One Mile at a Time, the first city to be served by the refreshed 77L will be Fort Lauderdale. The aircraft will go from having 266 seats in three cabins to 306 seats spread across just two cabins — business and economy. Besides the elimination of first class, the 77L will feature an updated business-class product in a 2-2-2 configuration (which we haven't seen yet) instead of the current 2-3-2 arrangement.
Once the updated aircraft begins flying the FLL route on March 25, 2018, the south Florida city will be Emirates' only US destination to not feature a first-class cabin. Meanwhile, some of EK's 777-300ER aircraft are being reconfigured with the carrier's jaw-dropping first-class suites, which are already flying between DXB and Brussels (BRU) and Geneva (GVA).