Cathay Pacific announces new business class: 'Aria Suite' will have doors. Debut in 2024
Today it is the turn of Cathay Pacific, one of the world's top airlines, released a teaser on its IG profile [...]
Cathay Pacific
Oneworld
Today it is the turn of Cathay Pacific, one of the world's best companies, released a teaser on his IG profile in which he announced the debut of the new "Aria Suite" business class cabin.
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In this article:
Current situation
Cathay's current long-haul fleet has cabins, all with direct aisle access except for a small number of A330/300s, but not the most modern.
Business class on A330 Cathay Pacific
I recently flew with Cathay in all the wide-body planes, and the products offered on board are very similar, precisely because they are the same seat model, only with the natural upgrade since the A350s are much more modern machines than the 330.
Business. class A350 Cathay Pacific
The decision to start with the restyling of the 777/300 is perhaps dictated by the need to renew not only the Business product, but also the First Class product that is present only on this model in the CX fleet.
The business class seat on Cathay Pacific's 777/300.
First class on Cathay Pacific's 777/300 (on a plane chartered to Qatar).
However, there is no information regarding a new First cabin, but it could always come in the next few months.
In recent months we have seen a large number of companies announcing new features for premium cabins and beyond. At home oneWorld awaits the new American Airlines cabin, while Iberia has just put into service the new cabin of business.
What Cathay's new business will look like
The main business class cabin on Cathay's 777/300.
To date, the special feature of CX's 777 configuration is that at the front they accommodate 6 First seats, with a 1-1-1 setup in two rows. Then a tiny business class cabin with only 8 seats, split over two rows, and then the business cabin with 48 seats.
The teaser doesn't say much, but it is possible to identify some distinctive elements from the presence of the door, optiona that seems to have become a must-have for new business booths. The video also shows a lot of personal storage space and wirelss cell phone charging.
Judging from the little that the video shows it would seem that the choice made by Cathay is just in the same direction as American Airlines, the chosen chair looks just like an Ascent manufactured by Adient Aerospace.
In conclusion
What we do know is that the first planes to receive the new seat will be the 777/300s, so it is a restyling of the current fleet in anticipation, sooner or later, of receiving the new 777/9s. The new cabin should debut during Q2 next year, so presumably with the start of the summer schedule in April/May.
We will see whether this will also coincide with a new first cabin or Cathay will copy here as well AA that with the release of the new business will begin eliminating Flagship Firs chairst from the fleet.
