Cathay Pacific is teasing a new Business Class product called the “Aria Suite”. These are scheduled to enter service next year on the airline’s Boeing B777s.
Aria Suite
Aria Suite is what Cathay Pacific calls its new Business Class product as. The airline has released a short 40-second video with some details and visuals about the new product but other than that, we will have to wait for more details. Cathay Pacific says that the Aria Suite will enter service in the second quarter of 2024.
Based on the video, the new Business Class seats will be in a 1-2-1 herringbone configuration, with the seats facing inwards. The seats will have a sliding door, something which is increasingly becoming common among new Business Class products. The seats will also have enough storage space including the center armrest being movable to expose storage compartments and the seats will also feature wireless charging.
The new Business Class product of Cathay Pacific looks very similar to the one Etihad unveiled for its new Boeing B787 Dreamliners. The centre armrest design looks exactly the same in both.
The Hong Kong-based carrier has revealed that the Aria Suite will be coming to Boeing B777s. Initially, the airline intended to introduce new premium products on the Boeing B777-9s in 2020 but as the aircraft has been continuously facing delays and is now scheduled to enter only in 2025, the airline may have thought of introducing the new product in the existing fleet of B777s. Cathay Pacific is not the only airline which has had to take this type of decision. Lufthansa also intended to introduce new Allegris products on B777-9s but has since revealed that the new seats will be coming to Airbus A350s.
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Coming back to the Aria Suite, it’s not yet clear whether other Cathay Pacific aircraft like the Airbus A350s and A330s will be retrofitted with these new seats. I assume that will be the case to ensure product commonality.
What about First Class?
While the oneworld carrier has now confirmed that a new Business Class product is coming to its B777 fleet, the airline has not revealed plans for First Class. Some of the carrier’s B777 aircraft feature a First Class product. Now, there can be multiple ways this could play out:
- Cathay Pacific will start teasing new First Class once the hype has been created for the Aria Suites if at all the airline is planning to install new First Class on existing B777 fleet
- Perhaps Cathay Pacific will reconfigure the B777 fleet only with new Aria Suites and maintain the existing First Class product and launch them on B777-9s as originally planned
Whatever the plan is, it’s great to see Cathay Pacific launching a new Business Class product. The teaser looks great and it will be very exciting to see the final product when it arrives.
Featured image by Cathay Pacific
What do you think of Cathay Pacific’s new Business Class product “Aria Suite”? Let me know in the comments section below.
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