American Airlines has unveiled a new design for its long haul business class seats.
The new seats are fully lie-flat and every business passenger will have direct aisle access.
The seats will be installed on American’s Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 aircraft that are to be delivered in the coming years.
American expects to receive 22 Airbus A350s in 2017. Boeing 787s are due in late 2016 and 2017.
The new seat could also be installed in some existing Boeing 777-200s that are in line for business class upgrades.
American is trying to catch up with the modern world as many airlines have had fully lie-flat business class seats for over a decade, including their partner British Airways.
Features
The new business seat will have two significant and essential features:
- lie-flat, each business class seat will recline into a fully flat position instead of the angled-lie flat design still installed on many of American’s fleet
- aisle access, each business class passenger will have direct access to the aisle
Supplier
The seats will be the Super Diamond Business Class Seat from Florida based B/E Aerospace.
B/E Aerospace will also provide the seats for its new premium economy class beginning with the Boeing 787-9 later this year.
B/E Aerospace will be providing all three classes of seats for American’s Airbus A350 when it is delivered at the end of 2017.
American dropped Zodiac as the provider of its business class seats on the Boeing 787-8 after Zodiac had continued production problems.
N.B. Image credit: American Airlines
