Cathay Pacific launches new long haul business class four years after last one

In October 2006 Cathay Pacific launched a major upgrade of first, business and economy classes, the details of which were published on this blog.   Today Cathay Pacific launched a new business class only.  The reason?  A strategic mistake in 2006 that saw it take the cheap option in moving to fully lie flat seats.

The new first class has been widely acclaimed and is still seen to have been a success.   It is a big seat with enough room for a guest which folds down to a bed.  There is little good reason to change this and Cathay's high yield First Class business seems assured.

The economy class has been revolutionary in having fixed frames which the seats slid forward within for recline.   The benefit was meant to be that passengers would not face seats reclining into their faces, but there were many reports of discomfort and cramped conditions.  Not exactly a success, but economy passengers are mostly price sensitive.  

The business class has been a bit of a flop.  The intention was to catch up with the likes of Singapore Airlines and British Airways in replacing the angled lie flat seats with a fully lie flat seat.  What was chosen was an option that is a version of the herringbone seats seen on Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand, yet there were two crucial differences.  First the Cathay version reclined into a fully lie flat bed, whereas the Virgin/Air NZ version flipped over into a flat bed surface.  Secondly, and more importantly it is a lot narrower.    The Cathay seats are 20" wide, the Virgin and Air NZ ones are 22" wide.  The Virgin and Air NZ ones are considered a success and widely acclaimed, the Cathay ones have been compared to coffins and claustrophobic.

Enough anecdotal reports of the Cathay product, compared to the competition, kept some business class travel from Cathay, which otherwise has excellent ground product and soft product.  From London, for example, BA, Virgin and Air NZ all offer fully lie flat seats.   Singapore Airlines and now Qantas (A380 only) both have better products for the Kangaroo route as well.   So Cathay listened and has come up with this:

Cathay Pacific New Business Class

The press release states that it has both privacy and openness.  The configuration is 1-2-1 for Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A330-300s for long haul routes.  Key features listed are:

- Added storage, including a Side Cabinet that doubles as privacy screen with vanity mirror;

- Side seats are outward facing towards windows;

- All seats continue to have direct aisle access.

However, the best to judge is to see it.  This PDF file from Cathay compares all of the dimensions of the current seats with the new ones.

Business Traveller also has some excellent photos on its Flickr site.  It also notes no announcement yet of a rumoured premium economy class for Cathay.

It is notable that Cathay has not announced that it is retrofitting either the Airbus A340s or the Boeing 747s with the new seats.  The A340s can be expected to be replaced by 777s and A350s in due course, but the 747s are the workhorses of key routes such as London-Hong Kong.  Cathay has not ordered replacements for these aircraft as of yet, nor indicated that it is in a hurry to do so.  Maybe it will be announcing a retrofit once it has made decisions on premium economy, or perhaps there are issues with sacrificing the number of seats on 747s given the configuration must be 1-2-1 in a rather wider cabin than exists on A330s and 777s.

The Wing lounge at Hong Kong is also to be refurbished, and added to Hong Kong hub is the new Cabin lounge, of which few details have been announced.   Also launched is a new uniform.

UPDATE:  Australian Business Traveller has perhaps the best write up about it.