In mid-2023, British Airways’ CEO announced that the airline planned to update the interiors of its Airbus A380s. The airline has slowly been revealing details about what we can expect. With British Airways having recently unveiled its new first class suite, I wanted to take an updated look at what we can expect from the A380s.
In this post:
British Airways A380s getting new first & business class
At the start of the pandemic, British Airways grounded its Airbus A380 fleet, as several airlines did. Fortunately in late 2021, the airline brought back these planes, and all signs point toward the whale jet staying in British Airways’ fleet for years to come.
The catch is that at this point, British Airways’ A380 interiors are quite outdated. British Airways has introduced its new Club Suites business class in recent years, though none of the A380s feature these cabins.
In July 2023, British Airways CEO Sean Doyle revealed some exciting updates regarding the A380:
Hundreds of millions of pounds will be spent refitting BA’s 12 A380 double-decker superjumbos. This is an aircraft so popular with passengers that most airlines make it their flagship — but, under Cruz, it became BA’s most dated jet. It will have a new first class — perhaps on the upper deck for the first time — the popular new business-class Club Suite, also upstairs, and new premium economy and economy cabins.
As you can see, British Airways plans to reconfigure its entire A380 fleet with new cabins. Most significantly, British Airways’ A380s will get the carrier’s Club Suites business class, plus a new first class.
At this point, British Airways’ plans seem to be to start reconfiguring A380s as of mid-2026, and that assumes there aren’t further delays. So it’s anyone’s guess when the project actually starts and concludes, but I wouldn’t count on all A380s having new cabins before some point in 2027.
It’s not surprising to see how long it’s taking for this project to get started, when you consider that British Airways has just finished up reconfiguring its Boeing 777s, and is now working on slowly reconfiguring Boeing 787s.
Given that these planes will only be reconfigured by some point in 2027 (best case scenario), I think it’s safe to assume that British Airways intends to keep the A380 around well into the 2030s, or else the airline wouldn’t bother spending so much money on these jets.
What can we expect from British Airways’ A380 cabin upgrades?
British Airways’ A380s are currently configured with 469 seats, including 14 first class seats, 97 business class seats, 55 premium economy seats, and 303 economy seats.
The oneworld carrier currently has one of the most unusual A380 layouts of any airline, as the A380 has business class, premium economy, and economy on the upper deck, and first class, business class, and economy on the lower deck. There’s not another airline that has three different classes of service on each A380 deck. You’d think that’s not terribly efficient, so I’m curious how this could be reconfigured.
I think it goes without saying that the most exciting update to British Airways’ A380s will be the introduction of Club Suites, British Airways’ excellent new business class. This will represent a huge improvement over the current business class.
My guess is that British Airways will consolidate this business class on one deck, probably the upper deck. Admittedly the upper deck is narrower than the lower deck, so this could be a bit of a tight squeeze, but it should be manageable. Rumor has it that British Airways will even increase its business class seat count, and it could exceed 100.
British Airways also plans to introduce an all-new first class suite on its A380s. British Airways’ A380s currently feature spacious but not particularly modern first class suites.
This isn’t British Airways’ most modern first class, as the carrier’s current “new” first class is found on some 777s. This is essentially the old first class suite, but with a door.
Fortunately we’ll finally see British Airways introduce a reimagined first class, featuring proper doors, much improved technology, and plenty of additional storage. This product will debut on the A380, and then the same cabin is expected to be installed on British Airways’ Boeing 777Xs, which will be delivered at some point in 2026 and beyond (probably more likely 2027 or 2028).
While I doubt this will be the world’s best first class, it’s still a significant improvement over what the airline currently offers.
Bottom line
British Airways plans to update its Airbus A380 cabins. That’s exciting in terms of knowing that these planes will be around for years to come. The plan is for these planes to be reconfigured starting around the middle of 2026, and it’s anyone’s guess when the project will be complete.
We can expect British Airways A380s to get Club Suites, as well as the carrier’s brand new first class suite, which will also be installed on Boeing 777Xs in the future. When you combine the general comfort of the A380 with these updates, it should be a pretty nice ride!
What are you expecting from British Airways’ A380 retrofits?
Bottom line BA have zeroed in the interest in their customers once the fare is in their coffers and two decades of missed maintenance and upgrades make using them a gamble.
They can get it right but when anything goes wrong, they're worse than the locosts and things go wrong far more often than they should!
The "new" First seating on BA available in two years time is the same model seat as AF introduced in 2014... That says it all!
We are flying BA LHR to Miami on Feb 14th, looking at a flight radar I think we may be on G-XLED.
Does anybody know if this has upgraded business class to club suites yet?
Thanks
While it's great that BA will be doing a much-needed hard product upgrade, BA's biggest challenge remains the decline of service levels. Even in first class. What happened to the FAs who exemplified British elegance? It's as if they cleared them out and brought in . . . well . . . those who don't exemplify British elegance.
This is too little too late for us Miami folks. The A380 is the only option on BA and the business class sucks. The retrofitted cabins are great. Get rid of the A380s for MIA, we deserve a better product. Before anyone claps back, yes, I’m being a big baby, and I know it. I’d rather fly AA or go through NYC for better Oneworld options to Europe.
Thank you Ben, for keeping me informed about A380 and BA matters.
The new BA seats look appealing and more so that some others I have seen. With regard to BA in general; well now, my regular bimonthly BA flights never fail to convey me between destinations safely, efficiently and without undue stress.
As someone who enjoys regular air travel in the A380 operated by several carriers, your articles on the subject aircraft...
Thank you Ben, for keeping me informed about A380 and BA matters.
The new BA seats look appealing and more so that some others I have seen. With regard to BA in general; well now, my regular bimonthly BA flights never fail to convey me between destinations safely, efficiently and without undue stress.
As someone who enjoys regular air travel in the A380 operated by several carriers, your articles on the subject aircraft are always welcome, thank you.
Finally, one enjoys provoking the trolls by extolling the virtues of the BA airline. The response comments offer such entertainment possibilities, therefore, it would be such a shame to prevent their post from being shared.
It's still a gigantic fuel-sucking waddling whale on the outside. A mammoth mistake of aviation, with a fanbase whose heads are full of ambergris.
Did you loose money investing on the A380 or something?
Ben I've noticed a real decline in the quality of the comments section of your blog this year.
A large number for comments are now just unhinged nuts going off on unrelated tangents and insulting each other.
Why aren't you doing stricter moderation and banning? I used to read the readers comments regularly, not it's just a X-like cesspool. This whole Tim Dunn Delta joke stopped being funny months ago and is now just...
Ben I've noticed a real decline in the quality of the comments section of your blog this year.
A large number for comments are now just unhinged nuts going off on unrelated tangents and insulting each other.
Why aren't you doing stricter moderation and banning? I used to read the readers comments regularly, not it's just a X-like cesspool. This whole Tim Dunn Delta joke stopped being funny months ago and is now just tedious.
It really detracts from what is otherwise a respectable travel resource.
I think its time to revisit the ban discussion - I know the last time it seemed public consensus seemed to come down on the side of not doing it but would imagine that may have changed.
Totally agree with reader Daniel. These dumb Tim Dunn jokes are tedious. Can you ban these useless comments?
So because two comments here are a little off and maybe should’ve be removed, you’re suggesting to ban all discussion and conversations around any travel topic in this site?
No it was muted that trolling comments and commentators be removed and banned.
"So because two comments here are a little off and maybe should’ve be removed, you’re suggesting to ban all discussion and conversations around any travel topic in this site?"
Wait. You read Tim W's comment, and your takeaway is that he's suggesting that all discussion and conversations around any travel topic be stopped?
You may want to reread it. Nobody is suggesting banning all discussion and conversations around any topic. At least, *I'm* not seeing...
"So because two comments here are a little off and maybe should’ve be removed, you’re suggesting to ban all discussion and conversations around any travel topic in this site?"
Wait. You read Tim W's comment, and your takeaway is that he's suggesting that all discussion and conversations around any travel topic be stopped?
You may want to reread it. Nobody is suggesting banning all discussion and conversations around any topic. At least, *I'm* not seeing that suggestion.
Strawman ass argument. They’re not saying to ban all discussion, they’re saying to ban discussion that results in insults and unrelated arguments that don’t contribute to the general discussion. It doesn’t take a 36 on the ACT English to understand this.
It's not that hard to figure out.
Sadly, controversy drives interaction; interaction drives ad views; ad views make money.
Compare any of the Tim Dunn shit-fests, to some post about IHG room sale, or $40 Rakuten bonus . . . which one gets more eyeballs (read that, "ad views")?
@Bk93, no I'm not suggesting all comments be banned because of "two off comments", I'm suggesting that because of a series of unhelpful comments across hundreds of posts this year that Ben be much stricter on moderating, deleting and blocking.
Free speech NIMBY hypocrite.
Read only what you want to hear.
What a beautiful life in the echo chamber.
Criticizing dictatorship and authoritarians for censorship but you yourselves still want to silence and censor certain posts.
Today you call them troll.
Biden calls them trash.
Trump calls them cat eaters.
Y'all just bunch of hypocrites who uphold freedom democracy and equality only when it's convenient for you.
I think a great start would be eliminating guest accounts. I get the irony of that considering 90% of my comments aren't from my account, but that's laziness and something I could easily fix.
Most of the "Timmy Dunne" mock account stupidity is from guest accounts, so overnight that would help reduce spam by requiring a few extra steps.
Moderation would need to be done by OMAAT itself though... if there was a community aspect,...
I think a great start would be eliminating guest accounts. I get the irony of that considering 90% of my comments aren't from my account, but that's laziness and something I could easily fix.
Most of the "Timmy Dunne" mock account stupidity is from guest accounts, so overnight that would help reduce spam by requiring a few extra steps.
Moderation would need to be done by OMAAT itself though... if there was a community aspect, people like Plane Jane would constantly vote down TD just for the sake of it, even if he was directly commenting on a post without Delta references.
Chris W is a guest commenter. He never joined prior to the decline in quality when he had the chance. Cry harder.
I hope he might consider adding an edit button to the comment section......
errr edward johnson you good?
how? why? what? when???????????????????? (one question mark for each question)?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
What do you do with an unmodern-A380. Well Airbus.... so you can just crash them all and nobody will care. Now when a door falls off a Boeing.... They get yelled at like everybody died. Oh, people people, people
How many people have died in A380 crashes again?
BENNY BOY! BETTER RUN TO MOMMY OR TIM DUNN WILL "GET YOU"!!! LOL
Dear Ben,
I hate this post. Please post about when Delta will finally get its A350-1000 the best plane ever (f**k everyone else)
with much love,
Tim Dunn
Hello Tim,
As someone who regularly crosses the pond on an A350-1000, operated by BA, I can testify to the passenger comfort of aircraft.
If Delta equipped the A350 with the same new First and Business seats as BA, then I suspect that you would not be too disappointed.