For many years, Singapore Airlines has been teasing us with the prospect of a brand new long-haul cabin experience for First Class and Business Class, in what the carrier has promised will set “a new industry standard” and “a quantum leap of service and product”.

There’s been one big problem though.

The new cabins were designed to debut on the airline’s upcoming Boeing 777-9 aircraft, originally due to enter service with the carrier in 2021, but now in the latest of many production setbacks delayed until 2026 at the earliest.

With SIA not expected to be the launch customer for the new long-haul jets, a 2027 entry into service is looking even more likely, and it seems like this has finally pushed the airline to bite the bullet and launch its long-awaited new seats on another aircraft type instead – the Airbus A350.

SIA’s S$1.1bn retrofit programme

This latest retrofit programme announced by Singapore Airlines will see the carrier conduct a tip-to-tail overhaul of the cabins on its 34-strong fleet of Airbus A350 Long Haul aircraft, plus its seven Airbus A350 ULR jets.

While the A350 Long Haul will retain its three-class configuration of Business, Premium Economy and Economy, the seven globe-spanning Airbus A350 ULRs will see four brand new First Class seats added, giving them a three-class configuration for the first time.

In total, the project represents an investment of S$1.1 billion, which the carrier says “reaffirms Singapore Airlines’ unwavering commitment to delivering an exceptional travel experience”.

The new First Class and Business Class seat designs will incorporate thoughtful elements that push the boundaries of comfort, luxury, and modernity, allowing our customers to relax or work effortlessly on board. Premium Economy Class and Economy Class customers can also look forward to refreshed cabin interiors that enhance their travel experience. 

Singapore Airlines

The aircraft will be retrofitted by SIA Engineering Company in Singapore, with the first jets rolling out of the hangar with their new cabin products between January and March 2026, potentially as little as 14 months from now.

All 41 of the airline’s Airbus A350 Long Haul and ULR aircraft are due to be retrofitted with these new cabins by the end of 2030.

Here’s how the refits will alter the seating layout on the Airbus A350 Long Haul aircraft.

Singapore Airlines Airbus A350 Long Haul
Cabin	Current	New	Change
Business Class	42	42	—
Premium Economy	24	24	—
Economy	187	192	2%
Total Seats	253	258	2%

Interestingly the Airbus A350 Long Haul fleet will effectively retain its current configuration, with the exception of the Economy Class cabin, where five additional seats will be squeezed in post-refit.

It will be interesting to see what that says about the space occupied by the new Business Class seats in particular, once more details are revealed.

Here’s how the refits will alter the seating layout on the Airbus A350 ULR aircraft, where all cabins see a configuration change.

Singapore Airlines Airbus A350 ULR
Cabin	Current	New	Change
First Class	—	4
Business Class	67	70	4%
Premium Economy	94	58	38%
Total Seats	161	132	18%

Here the addition of four First Class seats and three Business Class seats in the new layout means the airline is sacrificing 36 seats in the Premium Economy cabin.

That suggests Business Class will stretch well into the rear cabin section of the aircraft, currently exclusive to Premium Economy, and likely reflects the additional floorspace First Class cabins are renowned for occupying.

Prior to COVID-19, there were reports of SIA struggling to fill the 94-seat Premium Economy cabin on its A350 ULR flights – perhaps this latest move reflects that struggle continues even today.

Within the carrier’s Airbus A350 fleet, this will eventually leave only 24 of the Medium Haul variant with older seats – the 2018 Regional Business Class – post-2031.

New Business Class

Singapore Airlines is being rather coy about its new Business Class product, though from the images released it finally (and somewhat unsurprisingly) joins the realms of many others on the market today, with the addition of closing privacy doors.

The renderings suggest alternating window-aligned and aisle-aligned seats at each row, which we predicted may be part of the airline’s plans for its future long-haul Business Class cabins in our preview of SIA’s Boeing 777-9 back in 2023.

This layout, also adopted in the carrier’s latest wide-body Regional Business Class cabin, allows for couple / ‘honeymoon’ options at alternate rows in the middle section, and of course we’re hoping that double beds could potentially come into play here for couples.

The airline already offers this arrangement at three bulkhead rows on its Airbus A380s in Business Class, but it can be difficult to secure these, especially for last-minute bookings, so a wider rollout of the option would certainly be welcome.

Otherwise the sneak preview sadly gives little else away, but does remind us somewhat of the latest Qantas Airbus A350 Business Class Safran Unity product, also due to feature on that airline’s Airbus A350s in the years ahead, with couple pairs at alternate middle rows.

Japan Airlines has also opted for the Safran Unity platform for its latest Airbus A350 Business Class, though seats in the middle section remain staggered.

Here’s SIA’s short teaser video of the new 2026 Business Class seat, so you can start to judge for yourself what to expect.

While there are no further details about the new Business Class cabin at this stage, we can safely expect modern touches like USB-C charging ports, wireless charging pads and bluetooth headphone connectivity to feature.

IFE screens should also inch bigger, along with the general industry trend.

For example, JAL’s latest system in Business Class is a 24-inch 4K high resolution offering, while SIA’s decade-old Boeing 777-300ER Business Class still has 18-inch LCD screens.

Singapore Airlines says the new cabins “will incorporate thoughtful elements that push the boundaries of comfort, luxury, and modernity, allowing our customers to relax or work effortlessly on board”.

We look forward to taking a closer look.

New First Class

Singapore Airlines will only be installing its new First Class cabin product on its seven Airbus A350 ULR aircraft, which operate non-stop flights between Singapore and the USA, including to cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A new First Class product is certainly an attention-getter for Singapore Airlines fans, with the carrier’s latest non-Suites version on the Boeing 777-300ER fleet now over a decade old.

Unfortunately here the teaser from SIA is even more subtle, pointing only to the obvious closed-door privacy this cabin now requires.

There’s also an elaborate blind built into the window shades, not dissimilar to those found on a business jet.

Here’s SIA’s short teaser video of the new 2027 First Class seat.

The seat appears narrow enough to support a 1-2-1 configuration, in common with the existing Boeing 777-300ER layout, which is the likely setup in our opinion given the four-seat total fit SIA will be installing.

Nonetheless, we can’t rule out two-row single-aisle a 1-1 layout here – though we would be surprised if that works due to passenger egress rates from the Business Class cabin behind, in the event of an evacuation.

Airbus A350 ULR refits including the First Class cabin will begin in 2027, and the new seats will therefore no doubt be crowned ‘2027 F’ among frequent flyers.

The first Airbus A350 ULR refit will be completed in the first quarter of 2027, and in common with the Airbus A350 Long Haul aircraft refits, completion is slated for late 2030.

Updated Premium Economy and Economy Class

These cabin refits will also see refreshed Premium Economy Class seats in the Airbus A350 ULR and Airbus A350 Long Haul aircraft, while the latter will also see an upgraded Economy Class cabin.

The carrier’s upcoming Boeing 777-9 aircraft is due to have all-new products in these cabins, but in this refit the airline will unfortunately not equip its long-range Airbus A350s with those new versions.

There have been some interesting developments in the Premium Economy space in particular lately, with Lufthansa adopting the ZIM Privacy seat, already used by partner Swiss.

These primarily improve privacy, as their name suggests, with extended winged panels at the headrest level.

JAL has also recently introduced a new Premium Economy product by Safran Seats France that features large sliding privacy partitions, probably the most impressive we’ve seen yet in this travel class.

Let’s hope Singapore Airlines will be making some improvements like this to its own Premium Economy offering when the Boeing 777-9s finally arrive, especially in the privacy department.

In the meantime, we can expect “refreshed cabin interiors that enhance [the] travel experience” with the Airbus A350 refit programme.

More details to come

While the retrofit programme and some sneak peaks of the new First Class and Business Class seats are all we’re set to receive today – don’t worry.

Singapore Airlines is promising that more information will be rolled out in due course.

Full details on the entire range of SIA’s forthcoming long-haul First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy Class, and Economy Class cabin products, as well as the latest version of the KrisWorld IFE system, will be revealed closer to the entry into service of SIA’s first Boeing 777-9 and retrofitted A350-900 aircraft. 

Singapore Airlines

We certainly look forward to sharing further details with you all, once we receive them.

Singapore Airlines was planning to reveal all-new cabin products in First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy Class on its Boeing 777-9 aircraft, but that was supposed to happen way back in 2021 – and a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then.

With the 777-9 delayed even further, it’s great to report that the airline has decided to bring many of these new products to its 41 Airbus A350 Long Haul and Airbus A350 ULR aircraft, with a S$1.1bn refit programme running from early 2026 to late 2030.

This will bring a long-awaited update to the carrier’s Business Class cabins in particular, which have been falling behind the competition in recent years, and as expected will feature closing privacy doors.

The Airbus A350 ULR will even get a four-seat First Class cabin, at the significant expense of Premium Economy capacity. It will no doubt be a very interesting product for us to review in the years to come.

What do you make of SIA’s new A350 cabin products announcement? Let us know in the comments section below.

(Cover Image: Singapore Airlines)