Ciao, Roma: Emirates opens new business, first class lounge at Rome

Rome seems to be the epicentre of airport lounge openings this year, with Emirates now carving out its own space to join recent ribbon-cuttings by British Airways and Star Alliance.

The new lounge caters for Emirates business class and first class travellers, along with passengers holding Skywards Platinum and Gold membership and – under the terms of the Qantas/Emirates alliance – also Qantas Platinum and Qantas Gold frequent flyers booked onto an Emirates flight.

If you're jetting out on one of Emirates' double-daily flights from Rome to Dubai – which are split between an Airbus A380 and a Boeing 777 – make your way to the second level of Terminal 3, close to gates E22-E24.

The new-built lounge offers plenty of natural light with views across the runway...

... and room for 162 passengers across almost 950m² of space.

That space includes Emirates' obligatory and always pleasing buffet of hold and cold dishes, which have been given a Mediterranean twist with the addition of seasonal Roman and Italian specialities, along with comfortable leather armchairs and a choice of formal or relaxed seating.

Its design shares the same palette as Emirates' more recent lounges, including Melbourne – so while undeniably Emirates in furnishings, fixtures and decor, it's more contemporary than the flagship lounges at Dubai.

Emirates says that more new and upgraded lounges will follow in 2019, while behind the scenes, the Gulf colossus is finalising plans for the 2020 debut of its new premium economy seats.

These will adopt a ‘sleeperette’ design, airline CEO Tim Clark told Australian Business Traveller earlier this year, with around 38 inches of pitch (up to 6 inches more than economy), a 10 inch recline.

Clark says the seat will fully cradle the legs and feet, coupled with a deep recline to become a railway-style ‘sleeperette’ rather than being an angled flat bed or ‘sloping sleeper’, with a dedicated premium economy cabin where "most of the time passengers will have access to their own washrooms."

"We're to make it a quiet zone, a comfortable zone, and of course the food will be better (than economy)."