Emirates Puts A Privacy Screen In Premium Economy, And Now Business Class Has A Problem

Emirates has installed the world’s first full-height electric privacy screen in a Premium Economy seat — bringing a feature previously exclusive to Business Class suites into a cabin that costs a fraction of the price.

In Brief

Emirates unveiled the world's first electrically powered Premium Economy seat with full-height privacy screens on its new Airbus A350 aircraft.
Features once exclusive to Business Class, like privacy dividers and electric recline, now appear in Premium Economy at a fraction of the price.

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For decades, Premium Economy has been a polite fiction — a wider seat, a few extra inches of legroom, and the quiet understanding that the person next to you could still see everything on your screen.

Emirates has ended that arrangement.

The Dubai-based airline unveiled the world’s first electrically powered Premium Economy seat on Thursday (10 Sep), featuring a full-height adjustable privacy screen between every seat.

The seat debuts on Emirates’ newly delivered Airbus A350 aircraft and marks the first time a divider of this kind has appeared in a Premium Economy cabin anywhere in the world.

The Features Business Class Used To Keep To Itself

The privacy screen is operated through the seat’s integrated control unit, allowing passengers to raise or lower the divider and lock it into position at any point during the flight.

The seat itself is fully electric — the first of its kind in Premium Economy — with dedicated lounge and meal mode presets that adjust the recline angle at the touch of a button.

The cradle recline design means the seat shifts forward rather than backwards, so the passenger behind loses nothing when the person in front decides to sleep.

At 20 inches wide with up to 39 inches of pitch, the seat is installed in a 2-3-2 configuration across just 28 seats — a deliberate narrowing of the cabin that removes the four-abreast middle section found on Emirates’ larger A380 Premium Economy layout.

Wireless charging debuts in Emirates Premium Economy on this aircraft, alongside USB-C ports, a tray table with an integrated phone holder, and a 13.3-inch 4K HDR touchscreen.

New left and right exterior camera feeds join the existing forward and downward views, giving passengers in every seat a window-equivalent perspective.

A passenger reclines in Emirates’ new electrically powered Premium Economy seat aboard the Airbus A350, with the full-height privacy screen raised on both sides. The seat features a cradle recline design, U-Dream leather headrest, and deployable footrest. (Photo: Emirates)

The Gap That Just Got Smaller

Premium Economy fares on long-haul routes typically sit between USD800 (RM 3,257) and USD2,000 (RM8,143).

Business Class on the same routes can run USD3,000 (RM12,214) to USD6,000 (RM24,428) or more.

The features Emirates has added to this cabin — electric recline, privacy dividers, cradle seating, wireless charging, and gourmet dining on Royal Doulton china with Robert Welch cutlery — have, until now, been the primary justifications for that price difference.

Royal Doulton, whose fine china has graced British royal tables since 1815, and Robert Welch, whose cutlery sits in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, are not brands that have historically appeared below the Business Class galley.

Emirates launched Premium Economy in 2022.

The product has since won Best Premium Economy Class at the Business Traveller Middle East Awards in both 2024 and 2025.

The new seat is now available across all markets served by Emirates’ A350 fleet.

Emirates has operated flights to Malaysia since 1996 and currently runs 21 weekly services between Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and Dubai.

A codeshare agreement with Batik Air extends connectivity to Penang, Langkawi, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, and Kuching.