New Air France La Premiere First Class To Be Unveiled March 2025

In mid-2022, Air France formally announced plans to introduce a new first class product. Details were fairly limited at the time, though it’s no doubt one of the most exciting first class products on the horizon.

As is the case with so many new airline products, Air France has experienced delays with rolling this out, in part due to supply chain issues. However, the airline has just revealed that this new product will be unveiled in March 2025, and the timeline seems a bit firmer than in the past.

Now, we don’t know when it will actually enter service, but that’s when the big reveal will happen. I’ll cover all the details of what we know so far, based on all the hints that Air France has provided over the past couple of years.

What we know about Air France’s new first class

Air France is working on introducing an all-new first class product (known as “La Premiere”). The new first class experience will be unveiled in March 2025. It’s anyone’s guess as to when the first aircraft with the new cabins actually enter service — hopefully Air France isn’t taking lessons from Lufthansa when it comes to teasing new products. 😉

As of several months back, Air France claimed the new first class would enter service in the 2024-2025 winter season, which would be by late March 2025. I wouldn’t count on that timeline sticking, but who knows!

What do we know about this new first class cabin?

• The new first class will be “the longest cabin” on the market, with each passenger having five windows
• The new first class seat will be fully private; we’ll see if that comes in the form of curtains (as Air France currently has) or a floor-to-ceiling wall
• The new first class seat will have a modular design with three entirely private living spaces, including a seat, a chaise lounge, and a flat bed
• The new first class seat will have two video screens, as well as a wireless tablet for controlling seat functions
• The new first class cabin will consist of just three seats, so presumably it will be one row of seats in a 1-1-1 configuration
• Air France will introduce first class on a greater number of aircraft, though we don’t know which; it could be that more 777-300ERs are reconfigured into a four-class layout, or it could be that some Airbus A350s get the cabin as well (possibly some of the A350-1000s that Air France has on order?)
• According to Air France CEO Anne Rigail, “we aim to position it as the best in the world”

Below are a couple of slides from an investor day presentation earlier this year, mentioning the new product.

Furthermore, back in mid-2022, the airline had the below slide during an investor day presentation. As you can see, there’s an artistic rendering of a La Premiere seat. My guess is that this was just a possible concept, and not necessarily the product that Air France will go with. Note that the timeline for the product has shifted since then, because at the time the plan was for it to be introduced in the 2023-2024 winter season.

Air France first class is currently available on select Boeing 777-300ERs. The current first class product, which was introduced back in 2014, features curtains that offer full privacy. It’s a phenomenal cabin, and personally I rank Air France as having the third best first class experience in the air, and the best first class experience on the ground (and that experience recently got even better).

My initial take on Air France’s new first class

Air France simply does an amazing job with its first class experience, and I’m thrilled to see that the airline has recently even further improved the ground experience, and will now elevate the inflight experience. We’ve been waiting quite some time for the details, so I’m looking forward to the big reveal, and hopefully the imminent introduction of the product.

Based on what we know, I find the decision to just install three first class seats to be interesting on a couple of levels. In terms of passenger experience, having just three seats per row is awesome, and seems to be the new standard for top products.

This is really a trend that was kicked off with Emirates’ new Boeing 777 first class, and it’s now something we’re seeing with Japan Airlines’ new A350 first class. Yes, Cathay Pacific’s 777s also have three seats per row, but that’s because they’re angled, so it’s partially a space saving technique.

While Lufthansa’s new A350 first class also has three seats per row, that’s because the airline has (a really poorly thought out) double suite in the center of the cabin, so it really has the capacity for up to four guests.

Three seats sure is a mighty small first class cabin. I understand first class takes up a lot of real estate, but that’s a very small footprint.

Obviously Air France is trying to maximize revenue, and presumably the goal is that the cabin is consistently full with those paying cash for tickets. I do wonder if the airline will almost have an issue with not having enough first class seats in some markets. For example, between Paris and Los Angeles, I can see first class sometimes selling out months in advance. Though who knows, perhaps the airline will try to make that part of the appeal.

In fairness, Air France really is skimming the market with its first class product. The airline has continued to increase first class pricing over the years, and it has the most consistently steep pricing in first class. While other airlines do a lot of discounting in first class, Air France doesn’t.

What I’m most excited about is that Air France not only plans to reconfigure existing Boeing 777s with first class, but also plans to introduce first class on more aircraft. I’m curious to learn the details of that, and just how many additional planes will get first class.

Bottom line

Air France’s new La Premiere first class should be unveiled in March 2025, though it remains to be seen when it actually enters service. The airline has revealed that first class will feature just three seats, so it’ll be a very exclusive cabin. Perhaps the most exciting development is that Air France plans to expand its first class footprint to more aircraft, so it won’t just be select 777s that have first class.

What do you make of Air France’s first class plans?