Emirates’ New Safran Business Class Seats: What To Expect?

In November 2023, Emirates Airline announced that it’s partnering with Safran on new seats for much of its fleet. For many of us, the biggest question here is what we should expect from Emirates’ new business class. We now have some more clues…

Safran supplying seats for new Emirates fleet

Emirates is continuing its long-standing partnership with Safran, and has awarded the company contracts worth over $1.2 billion for future aircraft cabin seating. Specifically, Safran will supply seats for Emirates in business class, premium economy, and economy, on newly delivered Airbus A350-900s and Boeing 777-9s, as well as for reconfigured Boeing 777-300ERs.

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For context, Emirates and Safran have worked together for many years. Safran produces Emirates’ current economy and premium economy seats, as well as Emirates’ A380 business class seat. Emirates’ new first class suite, which will be installed on many future aircraft, is produced by Rockwell Collins, so that’s not part of this agreement.

Emirates is promising that the new seats produced in partnership with Safran will offer “a host of enhancements that set a new standard for comfort, privacy and convenience, including generous space and a bolder roster of luxurious features, stylish interior finishes and next level-technology in every cabin class.”

Here’s how Emirates President Tim Clark describes this partnership:

“Safran is a key partner for Emirates and we’re working closely to reimagine and elevate our future cabins with smart design and the latest technologies. These have been decisive factors in our selection of seat types which will be customized for Emirates. Today’s announcement is significant not only because it cements the partnership between Emirates and Safran, but also because it supports aviation manufacturing and the wider value chain in France and across Europe.”

What will Emirates’ new business class seat be?

In the coming months, Emirates will finally be introducing a new business class product:

• Emirates will be taking delivery of its first Airbus A350-900s, which will feature all-new cabins
• Emirates will begin reconfiguring existing Boeing 777-300ERs, which should feature similar (or the same) cabins

The most interesting recent update is that Emirates has published its A350-900 business class seat map. The planes will have 32 business class seats, in a staggered configuration.

Between the seat map being published, and knowing that Emirates is working with Safran on the new business class, what does that tell us about which product Emirates may introduce?

Let me first acknowledge that it’s possible that Emirates is working with Safran on a fully custom product. However, I think it’s highly unlikely, given that Safran already has existing products that Emirates might like, and those can be customized to Emirates’ specifications.

We’re seeing enough production and supply chain delays with just about everything nowadays, and creating an all-new product only complicates that more. If Emirates were working on a custom product, I don’t think it would be putting A350 flights on sale yet. For example, Lufthansa’s Allegris is a custom product, and faced huge certification delays because of that.

Since this new business class product will be one that Emirates will use for years to come, I think there are a couple of possible ways we could see this play out.

One option is that Emirates simply updates its current staggered business class product that’s available on the A380s, and installs it on other aircraft. In the past, Emirates stated that this is what the plan was, though that was back when the 777X was supposed to be delivered in 2020, and not 2025 (or later). I hope that this isn’t the direction Emirates goes, but it also wouldn’t surprise me…

The way I view it, there’s one other realistic possibility, given Emirates maintaining a staggered configuration. It seems highly likely to me that Emirates will be selecting the Safran Unity seat, which is a staggered configuration with a door. This is the seat that Qantas is installing on its upcoming A350s, and it’s also the seat Air India has selected for its future fleet.

This product checks all the boxes, matches the seat map, and should be easiest to get certified.

Now, in the interest of being thorough, I should mention one other possibility, though I think there’s a 0.01% chance this turns out to be the case. If Emirates really wants to “wow” passengers and maintain a staggered configuration, could Emirates install the Safran Fusio seat? All Nippon Airways has this product on select Boeing 777s, and it’s by far the world’s most spacious business class seat.

Obviously I’m rooting for the Safran Fusio product here. If Emirates were to reconfigure its 777-300ERs from seven angled seats per row to the Safran Fusio product, that might just be the greatest cabin retrofit we’ve ever seen.

However, I think it’s highly unlikely the airline selects that, as the airline would be giving up too much cabin density.

Bottom line

Emirates is partnering with Safran for the business, premium economy, and economy cabins, on its newly delivered Airbus A350-900s and Boeing 777-9s, as well as for reconfiguring existing Boeing 777-300ERs.

This isn’t too surprising, given the longstanding partnership between the two companies. I think the biggest question now is which new business class seat Emirates will choose.

With the A350-900 business class seat map now published, we know that Emirates’ new business class will be in a staggered configuration. I think it’s most likely Emirates selects the Safran Unity seat, with the only other realistic alternative being a fully custom product, or an evolution of Emirates’ existing A380 business class.

We should find out these details in the very near future…

What are you expecting from Emirates’ new Safran business class seats?