Air New Zealand has revealed a long-overdue revamp of its Business Class seats, with a brand new design for its Boeing 787 jets launching in 2024, which is set to become the carrier’s sole long-haul product in this cabin by the middle of 2027.
There’s also a Business Premier Luxe section, with either four or eight seats offering additional space and privacy at the front of each Business Class cabin section, acting as a ‘halfway house’ between Business and First Class.
The new cabin also features a 1-2-1 layout, rather than the current 1-1-1 configuration, which will see the carrier offer 26 or 50 seats in Business Class on the 787-9s (across both Business Premier and Business Premier Luxe), up from only 18 or 27 today.
It would certainly be nice to think that improved capacity might translate to more partner award availability in future!
Air New Zealand’s current Business Class
Air New Zealand’s current Business Class seat was a popular and revolutionary design when it first launched in 2003 with Virgin Atlantic, as the first inward-facing herringbone Business Class seat layout ever seen in the industry, meaning all seats face towards the aisle.