Qantas has today announced plans for an all-new business class seat for its Dreamliners, though it’s not the best business class seat that the oneworld carrier has in store for us. Separately, I’ve covered how the airline will introduce new business class suites on Airbus A321XLR deliveries, and how the airline will retire Airbus A380s earlier than planned.
New Qantas 787 business class seats coming soon(ish)
Qantas plans to introduce new business class suites on the Boeing 787-9s that it has on order, which are expected to be delivered as of FY2028 (which runs from July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2028).
For context, Qantas currently has a fleet of 14 Dreamliners, each featuring 42 business class seats, in a staggered configuration. When this new product is introduced, the cabin will maintain 42 seats, and will still be in a staggered configuration.
That being said, the seats will get significant upgrades, including a sliding privacy door. The updated seats will feature 80″ lie flat beds, including a wider footwell, plus a 19″ entertainment screen, and a restyled personal storage space.
That’s all the airline has revealed as of now, and there’s no indication of existing Dreamliners being retrofitted with the new cabins. Now, that’s not to say it won’t happen eventually, but it definitely sounds like that won’t be happening any time soon.
In terms of the order book, Qantas currently has four Boeing 787-9s and 10 787-10s on order. The press release only explicitly mentions the 787-9 variant getting the new business class suites, so we’ll see how this all plays out (it would be very strange to introduce a third type of 787 business class seat).
While the seating manufacturer isn’t disclosed, this sure looks to me like it’s based on the Thompson Aero Vantage XL platform, which is exactly the same platform that Qantas currently uses on its Dreamliners. However, other than the general layout, everything about this product looks upgraded.
This is an improvement, not as good as the new A350 seat
While it’s nice to see Qantas upgrading its Boeing 787 business class, it’s worth noting that the carrier’s upcoming 24 Airbus A350-1000s will feature different seats in business class, which I’d argue are superior.
For that plane, the airline selected the Safran Unity platform, which is also a staggered business class seat with a door. I do think the Safran Unity seat is materially better than the Thompson Aero Vantage XL seat, though both are ultimately still comfortable.
While the Safran Unity seat is ideal for the A350 (based on the cabin width), it can also be installed on the 787, as it’s what Riyadh Air is offering on its Dreamliners.
My guess is that Qantas ultimately ended up going with the same platform it currently has (just updated) so that it can maintain exactly the same seat count. That will make it quite easy operationally if the airline has to swap planes around, since we don’t know if any existing planes will be retrofitted.
For that matter, if Qantas is just going to install the new seats on a handful of 787s, there’s inefficiency to introducing a new seating platform for that.
Bottom line
Qantas plans to introduce new business class suites on its upcoming Boeing 787 deliveries. The suites will boast privacy doors, 19″ TVs, larger footwells, and more. Expect this to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, since it seems like Qantas is sticking to the same Thompson Aero Vantage XL platform it currently uses.
What do you make of Qantas’ new 787 business class plans?
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