Izhavia Boeing 737 With TWO Business Class Seats?!?

There’s little in the world I find more interesting than planes with very unusual aircraft configurations. Whether it’s Azman Air’s Airbus A340 with two business class seats (well, it’s now in Iran for “maintenance”), or Georgian Airways’ Boeing 767 with two first class seats. Well, we can now add yet another airline to the two premium seat “club,” as flagged by reader Anthony.

Russia’s Izhavia Boeing 737 has an unusual layout

Izhavia is a small domestic Russian airline based at Izhevsk Airport (IJK), described as the national airline of the Udmurt Republic of Russia.

The airline operates a fleet of up to nine aircraft (I say “up to” because planes belonging to Russian carriers sometimes struggle to stay in service regularly). The most interesting part of the fleet is the seven Yakovlev Yak-42s that the airline operates — swoon!

But Izhavia also has two Boeing 737-800s, which are 10-14 years old, but joined the carrier’s fleet in 2022. One of the aircraft first flew for Jet Airways and then Vistara, while the other jet first flew for FlyDubai and Eastar Jet.

Anyway, all of that is slightly besides the point. What’s noteworthy about these aircraft is the configuration — they each have two business class seats. Yes, you read that right. Two. Not 16. Not eight. Not four. Two. Like one more than one.

The 737 is ordinarily in a 3-3 configuration in economy class and a 2-2 configuration in business class. In the case of this aircraft, there’s just a single pair of seats on the left side in the first row, with economy right across from it.

Check out the below video about this product, and at roughly the 2min35sec mark, you’ll see this exclusive cabin.

What an interesting configuration!

I can’t help but be absolutely fascinated by this configuration, and wonder about the logic. Admittedly Russian aviation has bigger fish to fry than worrying about the exact mix of economy vs. business class seats, but one wonders how this configuration came to be.

As you can see above, the 737 actually has a pretty modern interior. There are galley carts from Avianca, the economy seats seem to be from American, and the first class seats are maybe from… Delta?

Did the airline deliberately only install two business class seats? Could the company somehow only procure a total of four business class seats, so decided to put two on each aircraft? What is service like in business class, and how do the people across the aisle feel? Is there a dedicated lavatory or curtain? We need answers!!!

Bottom line

A few years ago, small Russian carrier Izhavia picked up a couple of Boeing 737s. From an aviation geek standpoint, the carrier’s Yakovlev Yak-42s are much more interesting. However, from a product geek standpoint, the carrier’s Boeing 737s fascinate me, as they have just two business class seats.

While it’s of absolute no consequence to me, you can’t help but wonder how that decision came to be.

Anyone have any insights into this unique configuration?