To celebrate World Environment Day and as part of an environmental strategy that includes a commitment to responsible consumption, Emirates is preparing to reuse more than 50 kilograms of materials from 191 aircraft that are undergoing cabin interior renovation . Emirates will breathe new life into materials by producing thousands of handmade children's backpacks and school bags, which will be donated this year to community schools and organizations ing early childhood education in Africa and Asia.
To minimize waste, the Emirates Engineering team was tasked with finding a way to reuse fabrics from the Economy Class seats of 22 Airbus A380 aircraft that have completed the modernization process. From these aircraft, 5.205 kilograms of materials were recovered, including seat fabric with a composition of 95% wool and 5% nylon and a flat weave structure, sourced from and Ireland. The materials were considered ideal for reuse due to their durability and non-flammable nature; Therefore, it was decided to manufacture high-quality backpacks for underprivileged children.
In the Emirates Engineering workshop, a dedicated team of tailors creatively designed a collection of backpacks for children of different ages and worked with Emirates' corporate communications, marketing and branding team to identify charities, schools, orphanages and foundations where The backpacks will be distributed in the coming months.
Emirates teams spent weeks researching bag styles, ensuring they were safe and comfortable for children and fit for purpose. The fabrics of all models are freshly washed in a laundry and then subjected to deep cleaning carried out manually and conditioning the leather for details on some bags, and are then completely disinfected before being sewn, forming exclusive pieces. The bags feature new lining, as well as functional zippers and adjustable straps. The result is a collection of durable, quality bags that Emirates will manufacture to order for worthy causes in Africa and Asia.
Emirates produces the backpacks by hand in the Emirates Engineering workshop, where a team of tailors – officially called Engineering Maintenance Assistants (engineering maintenance assistants) – is responsible for assembling and sewing the bags. Typically, tailors repair tears in the interiors of Emirates' vast fleet of aircraft, but now many of them are also working on producing school bags for students across the Emirates network.
This is the largest modernization project ever carried out in the world, with a multi-billion dollar investment from Emirates. It was launched in August 2022 with the intention of completely refurbishing 191 aircraft and elevating the customer experience, including 110 Airbus A380 and 81 Boeing 777 aircraft, which together can supply up to 50 kilograms of discarded fabrics. While new fabrics are installed on aircraft, there is also the possibility of reusing leftover materials.
Of the 22 Airbus A380 aircraft that were completely renovated, the materials in the First Class and Business Class cabins, such as leather, aluminum and wool, have already been reused. The collection Aircrafted by Emirates Limited edition luggage bag launched in November 2023 and developed in-house by Emirates Engineering sold out in a matter of weeks. Proceeds from the first sale of the non-profit collection Aircrafted by Emirates exceeded 70.000 AED and, after minimal deductions for operational costs, were donated to Emirates Airline Foundation, which s humanitarian projects around the world.
Managed entirely by the Emirates Engineering team, the modernization is a sizeable project that will take years to complete and will offer numerous recycling opportunities. 21.814 seats will be installed in Economy Class, 8.104 new seats in Economy, 1.894 renovated suites in First Class, more than 11.182 new generation seats in Business Class, in addition to the opportunity to generate more creative initiatives to reuse materials.
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Street: Emirates
