Secrets of the Emirates bar: What drove Sir Tim Clark to take a punt on the A380 premium lounge

Emirates flight attendant Mckenna Kischemoller makes a mocktail in the A380 onboard lounge. Photo / Grant Bradley

Emirates president Sir Tim Clark says Airbus had to be pushed hard to install a lounge bar on the top deck of its giant A380.

And he’s revealed what got him thinking about the popular feature for premium travellers aboard what remains a sought-after plane for all passengers.

With standing and sitting room for 26 first and business-class passengers, the space quickly became a permanent feature after Emirates introduced the planes to its fleet in August 2008.

Clark says Airbus and others had their doubts.

The idea was partly driven by the fact Clark wasn’t sure about Emirates’ ability to fill 84 business-class seats. On planes then in the fleet, the highest number of business-class seats was 44.

Speaking to the Business Herald in Dubai, Clark said: “Eighty-four was a bit of an ask, so I thought, ‘I know what I’ll do – I’ll stick a bar in the back’.”

The area at the back of the upper deck, just forward of the big rear galley, was limited because of two doors.

“I sat down and knocked out eight business-class seats. I already had the two emergency exit doors in the back that were compromising space in terms of income generation,” says Clark, one of Emirates’ founders. The airline is the biggest operator of A380s, which suit its hub-and-spoke model, and Clark says it’s the most popular plane he’s seen in more than five decades in aviation.

“The A380 was a step change for us when it came in. I was working things out and measuring the real estate, how much income it was going to give. A number of things weren’t clear, apart from the showers.”

The two shower spas are roomy spaces at the front of the first-class section where passengers can have a five-minute shower during the flight. “It was a labour of love,” says Clark. “I spent more time in Hamburg and Toulouse on the showers and at the bar than here [Emirates’ base in Dubai] because Airbus had to be taken by the hand. All of this was very difficult for them to embrace.” Clark, as one of the biggest customers for wide-body planes, has a reputation for pushing aircraft-makers hard.

A team of willing workers at Airbus’ Hamburg plant quietly built a wooden mock-up of the bar to show to the plane-maker’s sceptical bosses it could be done.

The bar on board Emirates' A380 is staffed throughout the flight by one of eight business-class flight attendants. Photo / Grant Bradley

Clark was prepared to re-think the idea if it didn’t work. The bar had to be able to be taken out in four days and the seats reinstated. “So we set off - we launched the showers, the first-class suites, of course, and we never looked back. And [the bar] was so popular that I realised that there was no question about any degree of semi-permanence of the structure. It had to be permanent.”

Bars on planes were not new, but previously hadn’t lasted long.

While there were extravagant lounges in the first model Boeing 747 jumbos, they were phased out within years as revenue planners put their feet down. But Clark’s employers before Emirates, Gulf Air, stuck with their especially luxurious bar through the mid-1970s and into the 1980s when he worked there.

Gulf Air, based in Bahrain and then flying mainly in a region where alcohol is either frowned upon or banned, had a bar in the back of Lockheed TriStars.

“This was really good crack for the staff that used it, because none of the passengers did,” says Clark. “They didn’t make it quite as elaborate, but we used to put on the Montecristo cigars because you could smoke in the cabin then.”

“There was an unbelievable display of hot and cold caviar — we had gold lame seats, it was wonderful.”

Premium passengers can watch live sports in the Emirates A380's on board lounge. Photo / Grant Bradley

The Emirates on board lounge is now into its third iteration, taking inspiration from private yacht cabins, and is a big driver for passengers to book premium tickets on the airline’s A380s. Other airlines with A380s, including Qatar Airways, Korean Air, Qantas and Etihad, have lounges, as does Virgin Atlantic on its Airbus A330s and Boeing 787s. But others don’t devote as much space and resources to their lounges as Emirates does.

A crew member is assigned to the bar throughout the flight from among the eight flight attendants in business class. On offer in the lounge are sandwiches, hot snacks such as chicken in oyster sauce, fresh fruit, orange and lemon cake and a selection of mini-pastries. Crew, many of whom have done mixology courses, make around 20 cocktails or mocktails on request. The 21-square-metre space is also ideal for stretching.

At crew briefings before the flight, they decide who will take the lead in running the bar during the flight.

Clark says flights up to 17 hours long have been part of the draw for Emirates passengers. “Part of the success, of course, has been the ultra-long-range missions we’re putting on these things through Sydney, Los Angeles, Melbourne, you name it. It’s become the top [thing] for our client base, many of whom are regulars. But on some flights, there are very few people in [the aircraft].

“But we know which flights the aircraft is going to be full in the bar. For instance, the 2300 departure out of JFK, every day the bar’s full; equally, if you look at Sydney.”

Pullman-style seats were installed during the last upgrade, reported as costing $4 million a plane in 2017. Clark says that meant the space was even more popular among passengers wanting to eat or even work in there. That could be challenging to manage at times.

The growth of social media - and now the ability to post live from 38,000 feet via on board Wi-Fi - had further boosted the bar’s appeal.

“It has been and continues to be hugely popular. It’s a big draw for the premium cabins,” says Clark.

Grant Bradley has worked at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.

The Herald travelled to Dubai courtesy of Emirates.