In 2019, British Airways introduced its new Club Suites business class, featuring direct aisle access and doors. This marks a massive improvement to the carrier’s business class experience. As is always the case when new business class products are introduced, the big question is the timeline with which seats will be rolled out.
There’s now an update when it comes to British Airways retrofitting its existing Boeing 787s, as this has all taken a bit longer than planned.
In this post:
British Airways 787-8s & 787-9s getting Club Suites
As far as British Airways’ Club Suites rollout schedule goes, the airline has been taking delivery of Airbus A350-1000s and Boeing 787-10s with the new business class product. On top of that, the airline has been reconfiguring Boeing 777s with these new seats, and at this point, virtually all Heathrow-based 777s feature the new Club Suites product.
However, up until now, there’s not a single Boeing 787-8 or Boeing 787-9 in service with the new cabins. Fortunately that should be changing soon. A British Airways Boeing 787-8 is currently getting new cabins. The jet has the registration code G-ZBJA, and should hopefully enter service in the coming weeks. However, since this is the first aircraft of this fleet type to get new cabins, there’s a chance that certification could take some extra time.
Unfortunately this project has been delayed quite a bit. Back when the Club Suites rollout first started, the plan was for 787-8s and 787-9s to get these new cabins as of 2021. However, the pandemic delayed the timeline for that. The updated schedule was that the first 787-8 should enter service with new cabins as of 2023, but that also didn’t stick.
It remains to be seen which routes will be the first to get new cabins.
How is British Airways reconfiguring 787s?
How should we expect the layouts of British Airways’ Boeing 787s to change as they’re reconfigured?
British Airways Boeing 787-8s will go from having 214 seats to having 204 seats, resulting in a capacity reduction of 10 seats:
- Business class will go from 35 seats to 31 seats
- Premium economy will to from 25 seats to 37 seats
- Economy will go from 154 seats to 136 seats
As you can see, while there’s a small reduction in business class seats, British Airways is betting big on premium economy.
Meanwhile British Airways Boeing 787-9s will go from having 216 seats to having 215 seats, resulting in a capacity reduction of one seat:
- First class will maintain eight seats
- Business class will go from 42 seats to 38 seats
- Premium economy will maintain 39 seats
- Economy will go from 127 seats to 130 seats
There’s not nearly as much of a change to the Boeing 787-9 configuration, as I imagine we’re not seeing most cabin dividers moved.
Bottom line
British Airways has started the process of retrofitting existing Boeing 787s with its new Club Suites business class. The first 787-8 is currently being reconfigured, and should enter service in the coming weeks. I’d expect it will take at least through the end of 2025 for all existing 787s to get Club Suites, and maybe that’s even optimistic.
On top of that, we’re seeing some general changes to cabin layouts here. On the Boeing 787-8, we’ll also see a significant increase in premium economy capacity.
What do you make of British Airways reconfiguring its Boeing 787s?
We're off to Santiago, Chile in March 2025. Any thoughts on the likelihood of the new Suites being fitted to the BA251? Coming back from Buenos Aries so not sure with which airline as yet. BA no longer flies non stop to/from there.
BA have bigger issues than retro fitting a decade old product to some of their airframes.
Working customer service channels, reliable & usable IT systems (both internal and customer facing) being just two areas that have been in desperate need of attention for years...
#BestAvoided until they deliver a reliable, competitive service rather than harvesting cash from inherited brand and slot dominance.
Woot! @ConcordeLadyBoy is off her medication today!! Just look at her react to every post...she must be eagerly pressing the refresh button just to see when a new comment is in. Chill, honey...CHILL.
I flew from LHR to BGI and BGI to LHR last week on a 787 and the new club suite was already fitted. In fact there are two flights a day both operated by 787's which both have the club suites installed
That's because both of those are 787-10s, which have always had the suites since the day they were delivered.
Just avoid all BA flights from LGW. As far as I am aware there are no plans to upgrade any BA aircraft flying from there. It is just LHR based aircraft that will ever be upgraded.
Another Boeing Casket "flying"; a matter of time till it falls apart in the sky!
As a DFW based flyer, I'm looking forward to flying the club suites in 2030!
Maybe it’ll go to Hong Kong. Part of the improvements they’ve been planning to make for that route which is surely so competitive with Cathay Pacific being the rival operator.
Exciting times. In other news, looks like the final 777-300 arrived in Cardiff earlier today so hopefully that means the entire -300 fleet will be CS very soon.
G-STBC is still flying around, so two in at Cardiff and one still clunking around.
BA shifting towards Premium Economy feels like they're fighting the last war. The lack of a decent business class product had to contribute to the demand they've seen for Premium Economy.
Once BA's reputation for business class seats improves, more of their passengers will want to fly business class.
The Venn diagram between (1) people who can/will purchase Business class, (2) but refuse to do so, in protest to the older seat design, (3) yet only can/will fly BA, as opposed to another airline's Business product....
....is likely so small, as to be statistically anomalous.
I'd assume it's more to do with the demand they see on leisure routes where there are likely a large number of people who will pay the premium for a large recliner chair but won't/can't pay for business class regardless of quality.
I know people at work who already fall into that category while I did exactly that for my last long leisure flight as the price premium was small Vs economy with 2...
I'd assume it's more to do with the demand they see on leisure routes where there are likely a large number of people who will pay the premium for a large recliner chair but won't/can't pay for business class regardless of quality.
I know people at work who already fall into that category while I did exactly that for my last long leisure flight as the price premium was small Vs economy with 2 checked bags.
This is further backed up with the already less premium configured -8s getting an increase in PE while the -9s hold the the number of PE seats static
BA will have to radically rethink their approach to many things inc. Cabin cleaning and maintenance and ground based customer service if they want to suceed (or even be competitive) in the PE market. "Fortress Heathrow" and corporate contracts can no longer bridge the gaping void between their marketing and the real world experience /what alternatives are delivering today.
Airlines need to get better and faster at rolling out these products. It's so tiring playing aircraft roulette all the time.
Sad thing is that even though BA is taking 5+ years for their Club Suite rollout. That's not even bad by airline standards.
Offer a consistent product, so customers don't have to keep guessing and deal with seat changes.
I'll bet LH's Allegris rollout is going to be even more of a disaster than it's already been as they start retrofitting.
The airlines generally aren't the problem.
The seat manufacturers themselves are the ones who are overloaded, overwhelmed, and have little recourse for providing relieve to the queue. There's not that many of them, and they're all facing the same issues.
The only real way individual airlines are making it "worse," are by going with custom designed units (which are taking...
The airlines generally aren't the problem.
The seat manufacturers themselves are the ones who are overloaded, overwhelmed, and have little recourse for providing relieve to the queue. There's not that many of them, and they're all facing the same issues.
The only real way individual airlines are making it "worse," are by going with custom designed units (which are taking even longer) versus modified versions of extant products. But even then, much of that is negotiated years in advance, so it's tough to pin current backlog issues on that.
It's both. At the end of the day, you can blame seat manufacturers all you want, airlines are the ones putting out the product. It's their own businesses that will suffer from poor release and management (look at LH).
Customers aren't going to blame seat manufacturers, but the airlines themselves. There are airlines that have done a much better job of rolling out fleet consistent products and others that haven't. There's surely a reason for...
It's both. At the end of the day, you can blame seat manufacturers all you want, airlines are the ones putting out the product. It's their own businesses that will suffer from poor release and management (look at LH).
Customers aren't going to blame seat manufacturers, but the airlines themselves. There are airlines that have done a much better job of rolling out fleet consistent products and others that haven't. There's surely a reason for that kind of discrepancy, yeah?
Meh, customers blame airlines for the weather too, but that doesn't make their complaints logical.
Not exactly sure what you expect airlines to do, in an environment where essentially every seat manufacturer is at max capacity for years to come, but it'd be interesting to hear........
Except airlines do have control over the seats they design and who they work with, unlike the weather...
Do you think SQ or other top airlines would've have a trash product rollout like Allegris? Clearly they operate differently and more efficiently.
But again, and for the third time: what does that change, when basically all of the manufacturers are at capacity, at this point?
Singapore has not yet attempted to roll out a new seating product in the post pandemic production era.
So I (and you) don't know the answer to that.
Rumor has it that...
But again, and for the third time: what does that change, when basically all of the manufacturers are at capacity, at this point?
Singapore has not yet attempted to roll out a new seating product in the post pandemic production era.
So I (and you) don't know the answer to that.
Rumor has it that they're planning to, so let's see how it goes. To their credit, at least they're keeping their plans/designs confidential, instead of announcing details and timelines that they aren't yet able to meet.
I don't know why you're acting like airlines are poor victims that are helpless in the face of seat manufacturers. They're both private entities with plenty of negotiating power. Billion dollar airline companies should be doing their due diligence before working with a manufacturer that's at capacity or bottlenecked. It's not like these things are decided with no airline control whatsoever.
And yes, the marketing and release timelines of your product 100% factors in to...
I don't know why you're acting like airlines are poor victims that are helpless in the face of seat manufacturers. They're both private entities with plenty of negotiating power. Billion dollar airline companies should be doing their due diligence before working with a manufacturer that's at capacity or bottlenecked. It's not like these things are decided with no airline control whatsoever.
And yes, the marketing and release timelines of your product 100% factors in to the rollout. Condor for example has done a very good job of fleet modernization and is bringing their A330neo product to all routes soon. A very stark contrast to their rival in LH.
K, so for a fourth time, since reading comprehension doesn't appear to be the strongest suit in play here:
They're all essentially at capacity.
Name the seatmaker you know, that has spare inventory to whip out an entire fleet's worth of renewal without multiple years of...
K, so for a fourth time, since reading comprehension doesn't appear to be the strongest suit in play here:
They're all essentially at capacity.
Name the seatmaker you know, that has spare inventory to whip out an entire fleet's worth of renewal without multiple years of prep-- especially after the last few years' aircraft OEM delays, having created further bottlenecks.
The carriers in waiting will want to know.
BA will have to radically rethink their approach to many things inc. Cabin cleaning and maintenance and ground based customer service if they want to suceed (or even be competitive) in the PE market. "Fortress Heathrow" and corporate contracts can no longer bridge the gaping void between their marketing and the real world experience /what alternatives are delivering today.
BA first announced the club suite over 6years ago. Today no LGW aircraft and not all...
BA will have to radically rethink their approach to many things inc. Cabin cleaning and maintenance and ground based customer service if they want to suceed (or even be competitive) in the PE market. "Fortress Heathrow" and corporate contracts can no longer bridge the gaping void between their marketing and the real world experience /what alternatives are delivering today.
BA first announced the club suite over 6years ago. Today no LGW aircraft and not all LHR have the product theyve been advertising for 5years!