Emirates: private en suite bathrooms for first class?

Having wowed the world with the debut of shower suites for first class flyers in 2008, Emirates is now looking at adding private bathrooms to its flagship suites.

“I’m working on en suite bathrooms in first class suites,” airline President Sir Tim Clark revealed during an industry conference in Berlin last week.

Emirates has continued to gild the premium travel experience – across first, business and premium economy cabins – at a time when rivals appear to have rediscovered the appeal and importance of that market.

Emirates' A380s already offer two shower suites for first class flyers.

“Like a hotel you’ve got to keep at it, and we’ll change out the products,” Clark told an International Air Transport Association gathering in Delhi last year.

“In fact, I’ve got another design of first class coming up, which is on the drawing board.”

It’s not known if these en suite bathrooms would eventually be destined for a second wave of deliveries for the long-delayed Boeing 777X or an upgrade to keep the Airbus A380 competitive into the next decade.

Also read: Emirates reveals 777X business class suites

The private bathroom of Etihad's A380 The Residence three-room suite.

Etihad added a private bathroom and shower to its A380 Residence super-suite, which launched in 2014, while recent years have seen the notion of in-suite bathrooms advanced by other design concepts.

This includes Airbus’ own proposals for an upmarket A350 first class cabin... 

Airbus' A350 first class concept.

... and the aptly-named En Suite from London firm Factorydesign.

Factorydesign's En Suite first class concept.

Also read: How Emirates plans to reinvent economy class