FARNBOROUGH, England — Airlines showcased recent business class seats at one in every of the world’s biggest air shows this week, as corporate travel demand is forecast to rise in 2024 in a recent report.
Qatar Airways displayed its business class upgrade at Farnborough Airshow near London. Essentially the most talked-about recent feature was the in-flight entertainment monitors that fully swivel to the side, allowing passengers facing sitting in pairs and even groups of 4 to create a much bigger shared space.
The product updates the Middle Eastern carrier’s existing “Qsuite” business class product, which was launched in 2017 with the unique seat configuration that enables a bunch to create an open-top “room” with sliding privacy doors in the course of the cabin. Folding screens also allow a bunch to view the identical monitor and create a shared table space.
Qatar Airways’ recent business class product, the Qsuite Next Gen’, features retractable screens.
CNBC
In its existing form, Qatar Airways reserves the four-person QSuite seats for group bookings. Single, twin and double seats are also available, with two-person “companion seats” that face one another also set to get foldable screens, making a dining table between them.
Rolling out recent business class seats across an airline’s fleet is generally a lengthy process spanning years, as upgrades are installed in recent aircraft and retrofitted onto planes already in service.
Qatar Airways said the brand new seats would arrive next 12 months on its Boeing B777-9 jets — the U.S. manufacturer’s recent wide-body, long-haul model that has experienced lengthy delivery delays. Qatar Airways announced an order for 20 additional B777-9s at Farnborough, taking its total orders for B777X jets to just about 100.
Qatar Airways’ “Qsuite Next Gen” business class seat, showcased on the Farnborough Air Show on July 22, 2024.
Qatar Airways
Turkish Airways also launched changes to its business class cabin on the air show, adding adjustable doors with privacy panels — a feature that has develop into standard lately in ever more luxurious premium class cabins.
In a report published Monday, trade group the Global Business Travel Association said increased economic stability and the discharge of pent-up demand would see spending on global business travel rise 11.1% 12 months on 12 months to $1.48 trillion. That will be up from $1.43 trillion in 2019, before the pandemic shut down nearly all work trips.
Business Class, First Class, and more recently Premium Economy, are probably the most lucrative cabins for airlines. Demand for those seats has been bolstered by an increasing variety of non-corporate travelers also willing to fork out for extra perks within the air.
That has led airlines within the U.S. and around the globe to innovate on the front of the plane, with the likes of Singapore Airlines offering private suites.
