Europe is probably the least competitive region in the world when it comes to the quality of seating provided on continental flights. Just about all aircraft feature tightly packed seats, no seat back entertainment, and no proper business class seat (but rather just economy seats with a blocked middle). While I know some people disagree, personally I’d take business class within the United States over business class within Europe any day of the week.
Along those lines, British Airways is making updates to the cabins of its narrow body jets. The seats have some minor differences compared to the previous product, so let’s take a look at what’s changing. I first wrote about this in early March (when it was announced), but the first aircraft with new interiors is now in service, and we have some “real” pictures.
In this post:
British Airways’ new short haul Airbus seats
British Airways is introducing the Collins Aerospace Meridian seat as its new short haul product, in both Club Europe (business class) and Euro Traveller (economy class). What changes will passengers notice?
- The seat has new stitching and a new pattern, which adds a bit of pizzaz to the cabin
- For passengers in Club Europe, this product features the return of the tray on the middle seat; this is something that British Airways otherwise eliminated years ago
- All Club Europe seats feature 60W USB-A and USB-C outlets, while all Euro Traveller seats feature 15W USB-A and USBC outlets; in the process, the airline is eliminating AC power outlets, which are currently in the forward rows of some aircraft
- These planes feature Airbus’ Airspace cabins with larger overhead bins, but that’s something that British Airways has already started rolling out on some aircraft
- While you’ll find the same seats in Club Europe and Euro Traveller, there is marginally more legroom ahead of the exit row
You can find some pictures and a video of the new seats below.
With new seats being installed, the overall cabin capacity is remaining the same. The Airbus A321neos with the new configuration also feature 220 seats, with the option to adjust the size of the business class cabin based on premium cabin demand for a particular flight.
Which planes have British Airways’ new short haul seats?
This new product is being installed on all newly delivered Airbus A320-family aircraft, as of the spring of 2024. British Airways recently took delivery of its first A321neo with the new cabins, which has the registration code G-TNED. Beyond that, the airline has 12 Airbus A320neos and seven Airbus A321neos on order, which should be delivered in the coming months. All of those planes will feature the new cabins.
Unfortunately British Airways doesn’t have plans to retrofit any existing aircraft. British Airways currently has nearly 120 Airbus A320-family aircraft, so it’ll truly be luck of the draw whether you get these new cabins. The lack of consistency will no doubt be disappointing to some.
Bottom line
British Airways is introducing new cabins for its short haul aircraft. With this, we’re seeing the introduction of new seat patterns, USB-A and USB-C outlets at every seat, and middle seat trays in business class.
This has now debuted on the first Airbus A321neo, and you can expect it on all Airbus narrow body deliveries going forward. Unfortunately there are no plans to retrofit existing aircraft, though, so your odds of getting the new cabin are quite low.
What do you make of British Airways’ new short haul cabins?
Never fly anything above M for transcontinental flights in Europe—it's a waste of money. Just don't, Even if they install Qsuite's, the service is and will always be horrendous...
A consequence of the airspace larger bins is that the overheard service panel is moved out to the window. Making it almost impossible for aisle passenger to reach the light switch and air vent for adjustment. But hey more space for the kitchen sinks that people like to carry on flights, which will just lead them to bring even more junk in to the cabin.
Don’t blame passengers for availing themselves of the space available, given absurd checked luggage charges for non-elite travellers ♂️.
I do blame passengers. The incessant hunt for the cheapest possible fare, the one dollar cheaper is much better attitude, brought those fees around. Yeah flying got super cheap in the base fare, but then you pay for your checked luggage. Far from all fares on BA excludes checked luggage, even in Y.
How do they add some extra space for the front rows without reducing the total number of seats?
Anyway these are the worst seats on air at the moment. I never understood why one wouldn't choose substantially cheaper Ryanair for EU flights because seats are nearly identical. Ba also flies them to Cairo and Amman, 5h on these seats are miserable especially if you booked a business class
The current layout involves 30 inches of legroom for rows 1-12 (1-14 for A321) and 29 inches for the rest of the rows. This layout isn’t changing hence the same number of seats
BA intra-Europe economy seats are an order of magnitude worse than American Airlines Oasis seats. Pitch is worse than Allegiant. Seat comfort is atrocious. I am quite convinced BS hates economy passengers.
The current seats are different between the section that can be used for Club Europe and those that are always Euro Traveler. I was wondering what people complained about, but once I walked to the rear rest room I realised it was not just the pitch, it was also the seats the selves that were different. Revelation.... The seats are not that bad in the forward part of the cabin.
Those back seats are absolutely horrible and BA will cram every economy passenger in them on flights that aren't full. I was in them once. Business was set at 3-4 rows in the front. Every seat from there until the cheap seats was blocked and could not be selected. We were crammed in like sardines behind the nicer seats. When I politely asked if I could move I was told "sit in your assigned seat."...
Those back seats are absolutely horrible and BA will cram every economy passenger in them on flights that aren't full. I was in them once. Business was set at 3-4 rows in the front. Every seat from there until the cheap seats was blocked and could not be selected. We were crammed in like sardines behind the nicer seats. When I politely asked if I could move I was told "sit in your assigned seat." At least the FA didn't say it was weight and balance.
I think the flight was an hour and my back was miserable.
It doesn’t make sense for most European carriers to install larger business/first class seats - blocking the middle seat (and in some cases more legroom) gives almost as much personal space. And most importantly it gives the airlines maximum flexibility - there is much more variation in yield on Europe-wide routes than in the US - you might struggle to sell more than one row of business class on some routes and easily sell 60+...
It doesn’t make sense for most European carriers to install larger business/first class seats - blocking the middle seat (and in some cases more legroom) gives almost as much personal space. And most importantly it gives the airlines maximum flexibility - there is much more variation in yield on Europe-wide routes than in the US - you might struggle to sell more than one row of business class on some routes and easily sell 60+ seats on others. Serving both with the same plane makes economic sense.
Yes but it’s miserable for passengers. European airlines can only do it because they all do it leaving passengers with no choice.
Within Europe the market is extremely competitive with Ryanair etc. abd far more so that the US and fares are considerably lower than in the US for equal distances. If you can fly from London to Athens for gbp50 you’re not going up worry about IFE. The vast majority of US flights don’t feature all the bells and whistles. Furthermore you don’t even generally get lounge access.
I can assure you there are no flights from London to athens for £50 anymore
BA most certainly did not eliminate the trays from the middle seats in Club Europe.
I thought this was a bit misleading too. A (relatively) small number of recent arrivals in the fleet were delivered without them, but they never ripped them out of the aircraft already in the fleet. So the chances of getting a plane without a table are slim - the vast majority have them.
Absolutely, I think every CE flight I've been on since Covid has had them.
They did for a period - when they first started receiving the NEOs. So the A19/320/21 “classics” still have the middle-seat table, then early 320/21 NEO deliveries don’t have them, and finally the newest NEO deliveries with this new cabin have “reintroduced” the middle table.
Of all the things AA did wrong with the USAir merger, updating and standardizing the narrow body fleet ( we won't go into was Oasis config good or not here) was a smart move. And while I'd like to see the A320s retired and replaced, AA updating them to be a MAX stop gap make sense too. I just hope AA does the same for their wide body fleet.
As for BA, don't be like Luft, update those cabins!
Not retrofitting these to existing aircraft is a big mistake. I feel like after some constant improvement at BA, they are going backwards again. Recently flying with BA Euroflyer from Gatwick, was genuinely awful with horrible backbreaking slimline seats and not even given water with the snack as was usual.
"All Club Europe seats feature 60W USB-A and USB-C outlets, while all Euro Traveller seats feature 15W USB-A and USBC outlets"-- How exactly is this being achieved if the number of intra-EU J rows varies based on the demand on a per-flight basis?
@ Ben Holz -- Great question! I think up until the exit row they have the 60W plugs, and then behind the exit row they have the 15W plugs. It's kind of cheap to have different power, IMO.
No 100W USB-C option for my laptop? Count me out!
Those seats looks a lot like Delta narrow-body seats. Wish they also had proper business class and IFE screens, not just the similar colour scheme. I'm not praising Delta though.
No need to update their 320 seats to the new version, the existing version is comfy enough for a 2+ hour trip around Europe. Charging ports on a short hop aren't needed by the majority of passengers anyway.
You and I have an entirely different view of what "comfy" means.
“Comfy enough” - it’s not Premium Transcon First Class, but nothing is that magical anyway.
Earlier this year we flew Club Europe 2 hours 30 minutes LHR-BUD. That was barely tolerable. We also flew LHR-LCA on another trip, 4 hours 45 minutes outbound and 5 hours returning. We were squirmingly uncomfortable for the final hour of those flights in thinly padded seats with little legroom.
The blocked middle seats (all with the tables) allowed us to squirm a little more extensively, but it’s a downright unpleasant experience for a...
Earlier this year we flew Club Europe 2 hours 30 minutes LHR-BUD. That was barely tolerable. We also flew LHR-LCA on another trip, 4 hours 45 minutes outbound and 5 hours returning. We were squirmingly uncomfortable for the final hour of those flights in thinly padded seats with little legroom.
The blocked middle seats (all with the tables) allowed us to squirm a little more extensively, but it’s a downright unpleasant experience for a couple of geezers.
AS Premium Economy is comfier IMHO. I don’t really care how pretty the new BA upholstery is.
I gotta say I’m not a fan of the tray in the middle seat. It’s too small to be of any real value. And unless something has changed with the new design, the middle tray does not allow one to raise the middle arm rests. I value the comfort of the extra seat width allowed by raising the arm rests more than a small fixed tray between the seats.
Really? As far as I can remember, you can still raise the arm rests on many of the older club Europe seats that have the table.
Whether the new middle table lets you - we'll have to wait and see
I find it very valuable for drinks.
I don't get why they don't add First class or Business Class+ in continental planes. They could put them in the first 2-3 rows. Then they have dynamic EuroBizz and then Eco. You can get the First class for a premium or it can be assigned for business class on check-in (if free). This would allow them to be as flexible as they are now (routes that I fly always have at least 4 rows...
I don't get why they don't add First class or Business Class+ in continental planes. They could put them in the first 2-3 rows. Then they have dynamic EuroBizz and then Eco. You can get the First class for a premium or it can be assigned for business class on check-in (if free). This would allow them to be as flexible as they are now (routes that I fly always have at least 4 rows of EuroBizz), and no customer would be unhappy as the normal price does not guarantee a nice seat. I also don't think they would loose more space as they can remove 33% of seats in these rows.
Because there's no demand for it. Why would someone pay extra for a large chair on a flight that takes 2-3 hours? If people were willing to pay for it, airlines would deliver such product. When making business class more attractive, it's far more important to invest the money into product (which BA does).
The same reason North Americans do. F class on short and mid haul flights go out 100% full with more people paying for it than ever before.