In 2024, Cathay Pacific announced plans to introduce a new regional business class product. The carrier’s current regional business class seat isn’t terribly competitive, but we’ve known that the airline wants to introduce flat beds. There’s now an exciting update, as the new seat has been unveiled (thanks to Mike O. for flagging this).
In this post:
Cathay Pacific’s new Aria Studio regional business class
Cathay Pacific intends to introduce a new regional business class product, which will be branded as the Aria Studio (as a reminder, Cathay Pacific’s new long haul business class is known as the Aria Suite, so that’s spiffy branding).
The airline hasn’t yet put out an announcement about the product, but it was revealed by the carrier’s CEO at an event for Cathay Pacific’s top tier frequent flyers, and you can find a picture here. It would appear that this is based on JPA Design’s Airtek seating platform, so seats will be in a 1-2-1, reverse herringbone configuration.
Cathay Pacific is expected to be the launch customer for this product, and it seems one of the main selling points of the new Airtek seat is how lightweight it is, with JPA Design insisting that comfort isn’t sacrificed in order to offer this.
The Aria Studio product is expected to be retrofitted on existing A330-300s as of later in 2026, and will also be installed on newly delivered A330-900neos, which are due as of 2028. Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like there are plans to offer these seats on A321neos.
For context, currently Cathay Pacific’s regional business class consists of recliner seats in a 2-2-2 configuration. These seats don’t recline very much and have a hard shell design, and personally I don’t find them to be terribly comfortable for relaxing or sleeping.
It’s worth emphasizing that Cathay Pacific also largely flies long haul aircraft on regional routes, so it’s very common to get flat beds on these routes. That’s because the carrier’s long haul Airbus A330s, Airbus A350s, and Boeing 777s, often operate shorter flights between longer sectors.
So you may very well find yourself on an A330 with flat beds, but the distinction is that those aren’t intended to be regional aircraft.
Cathay Pacific currently has a fleet of 39 Airbus A330s, split between the regional and long haul aircraft. What has long been remarkable about this fleet is just how many variants Cathay Pacific has, as the fleet has five different layouts:
- One regional configuration features 42 recliner business class seats and 265 economy seats
- One regional configuration features 24 recliner business class seats and 293 economy seats
- One long haul configuration features 39 flat bed business class seats and 223 economy seats
- One long haul configuration features 28 flat bed business class seats and 265 economy seats
- One long haul configuration features 38 flat bed business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 214 economy seats
I have to imagine that part of the goal with this retrofit is to standardize the A330 fleet a bit, as having so many variants can’t be efficient. So I’m curious if we might also see some long haul A330s converted into regional ones, or what.
This is a fantastic development for Cathay Pacific!
Cathay Pacific is a world class airline, one of the world’s best airline brands, as far as I’m concerned. The carrier has gorgeous lounges, and an impressive new long haul business class product.
When you look at the competitive landscape, there’s no denying that the carrier’s regional business class product has become a bit uncompetitive. Sure, most people probably don’t “need” a flat bed on a relatively short flight within Asia, though it is increasingly becoming the norm.
Just looking at the competitive landscape, Singapore Airlines and Starlux Airlines have flat beds on all of their aircraft, and China Airlines, EVA Air, and Korean Air, are increasingly even taking delivery of narrow body planes with flat beds.
I’ve gotta say, Cathay Pacific’s new regional business class product exceeds my expectations. I sort of expected for the airline to go with something like the Collins Aerospace Diamond seat, which is very space efficient, and barely takes up more space than Cathay Pacific’s current regional business class.
So to see the airline instead go for a reverse herringbone regional business class product is awesome, and a nice investment in the passenger experience.
Bottom line
Cathay Pacific is introducing a new regional business class product, which will be known as the Aria Studio. This will be installed on regional A330s, including existing A330-300s, plus upcoming A330-900neos. The airline will be the launch customer for the new Airtek platform, which is a reverse herringbone product in a 1-2-1 configuration.
This is a very nice improvement to Cathay Pacific’s passenger experience, and I look forward to learning more!
What do you make of Cathay Pacific’s new regional business class?
Japan, Singapore, and Mainland routes will almost certainly see these seats first due to high competitiveness. Eventually yes they’ll be rolled out to Bangkok, Jakarta, KL.
Curious if any other airline will pick up this seat for their A330. Probably produced by HAECO, no?
Also what are everyone’s thoughts on JAMCO “Quest for Elegance” being SQ’s next gen Business Class suite? With modifications for more storage space, of course. The company designed their 777-300ER F...
Japan, Singapore, and Mainland routes will almost certainly see these seats first due to high competitiveness. Eventually yes they’ll be rolled out to Bangkok, Jakarta, KL.
Curious if any other airline will pick up this seat for their A330. Probably produced by HAECO, no?
Also what are everyone’s thoughts on JAMCO “Quest for Elegance” being SQ’s next gen Business Class suite? With modifications for more storage space, of course. The company designed their 777-300ER F Suite, so they have history of working together
The Airtek platform is designed by the consortium of JPA Design, Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), and SWS Certification who in turn, licenses the product to someone like Collins Aerospace to build the product.
The 77W Aria Suites could've been a byproduct of Airtek as well using their Elements platform.
And regarding JAMCOs product, looks brilliant; first time I've seen a telly in a modern business class you can tilt!
Another airline that's consistent with their layout.
With a 45" pitch, you see where the A330 is costly in business class. Those reverse herringbone seats cannot extend laterally like on A350 and B777 so they take more space in fuselage length.
It also seems this is how Swiss managed to cram the Allegris seats on their 330s.
Let's see how they perform. The 330 is the narrowest passenger widebody in production
As per the rendering, the new design seems to be without a leg rest. Would be an interesting idea if the final product is indeed without one…
Interesting how our expectations are different in Asia: flat beds are expected on pretty much all flights over 2 hours. Contrast this with the US and Australia where it’s shockingly common to subject passengers to 5+ hour flights in basic recliners. Don’t get me started on BA’s horrific 30” legroom business class on 4+ hour flights between IST and LHR. They offer the same lousy product on their 5+ hour red eye flight to TBS.
Ben, you forgot to mention the 6th configuration (33A) with 8 flatbeds and 42 recliners in business and 230 economy seats, former Cathay Dragon planes with their regional first and business class.
Those are some of the oldest ones in the fleet from 2001-2002.
The only A330 I see them keeping that was ordered for Dragon would be -HWM (2013). Keep in mind some of the A330s currently in service were handed down to Dragon before they were folded into CX and in turn, the A330s were handed back to them.
One thing you can appreciate about CX which very few airlines do is the consistency of the seating layout. Regardless of how old or which generation the product is, the experience is the same. Similar to ANA and The Room, Qantas, Air Canada, etc. I can't really think of anyone else that offers that level of consistency.
Thanks for the hat tip! lol jk
Moving on,
1) Keep in mind that while they have some young A330s that are about 10 years old or so, they still have some of the oldest A330s from 2001-2002, so they definitely won't be getting the new product. If there is an economic downturn, the oldest A330s will simply be retired much faster and it'll be a perfect time to wait for the economy to...
Thanks for the hat tip! lol jk
Moving on,
1) Keep in mind that while they have some young A330s that are about 10 years old or so, they still have some of the oldest A330s from 2001-2002, so they definitely won't be getting the new product. If there is an economic downturn, the oldest A330s will simply be retired much faster and it'll be a perfect time to wait for the economy to pick up again and the A330neos start coming online.
2) While some medium-haul routes (CX distinguishes them as long-haul) gets the A330 such as Cairns and select Indian cities, it's primarily a regional aircraft now albeit with 2 different products.
3) I could see higher-yielding "premium" routes like Japan and Singapore get the new product, while the likes of Manila & Cebu, Surabaya, Jakarta, Phnom Penh, hanoi & Ho Chi Minh hang on to the oldest aircraft and product. But of course as CX is known for aircraft rotation, and the former 2 are just 90 minutes away.
4) Airtek is a lightweight platform and they have worked with CX for years, so it makes perfect sense on regional runs.
5) As for configuration, I can see them reduce the configuration to 1. If they need something bigger, they have an abundance of options ranging from the A359 up to the 77W and A35K and eventually 779. The A330neo will probably be similarly configured.
What I'm looking forward to is what they do with Economy.
Nice, in the long-term this should help uplift CX significantly, the fleet inconsistency was a major problem. Even midrange flights of 4 to 5 hours often saw the regional A330s, you could never be sure if you'd get the proper 1-2-1 vs 2-3-2 high density config.
Can't come soon enough! 5+ hour flights, even 'regional,' should have lie-flat for 'premium' cabin, especially on a wide-body aircraft (but, also, c'mon, it can/should be done on 737max, a321, too.)
Not bad for a regional product. Not bad at all.