Qatar Airways revolutionized the term “business class”, when it put what was virtually a competitive first class seat into business class, somehow, without reducing the number of seats on each plane. The seats debuted on long haul routes featuring the Boeing 777, and continued to grace the Airbus A350 fleet, but that left two blind spots: the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and the double decked Airbus A380.
Per Executive Traveller, new 787-9 Dreamliner deliveries are imminent, featuring a redesigned Qsuite which has managed to fit within the confines of the narrower 787, *in theory* without compromising seat width and creature comforts. If true, that’s an extraordinary feat…
“Our Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft is ready, but we have delayed the delivery because our new business class seat is not ready”
Akbar Al Baker, one of the most animated CEO’s in the airline industry, has indicated that the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner is ready for takeoff, albeit with a bit of a wait while the new Qsuite 2.0, beta – or whatever you’d like to call it is fine tuned. The project to keep what passengers love about the seat while fitting it into a narrower aircraft frame cannot have been an easy undertaking, but nonetheless Qatar Airways seems to suggest they’ve done it. Well, almost.
Now, it appears it will be gracing the skies sooner rather than later, since the jets are ready and, just waiting on final tweaks before the seats can take delivery. That can’t come soon enough…
The new seats purport to be lighter, while also addressing customer feedback to create even greater refinement to one of the two best business class seats flying in the sky. I previously rated this the very best business class seat flying, but ANA’s “The Room” changed that for me. It’ll be interested to see if Qatar fire back yet again, with the adversity of a more narrow aircraft. As of yet, no shots of the new cabin have been revealed.
Unfortunately for super jumbo lovers – planes that is – the A380 will not be receiving the Qsuite retrofit some had hoped for. This is in line with previous comments from Qatar Airways, and after the decision to retire the A380 fleet as early as 2024, it no longer made financial sense to invest in a top to bottom makeover. If you find yourself “slumming it” on the upper deck of Qatar’s A380 though, fear not, it still offers arguably the world’s best bar in the sky.
