FARNBOROUGH, England — A new report predicts increased demand for corporate travel in 2024, and airlines unveiled new business class seats at one of the world’s biggest air shows this week.
Qatar Airways showed off its business class upgrades at the Farnborough Airshow near London, with the most talked-about new feature being the in-flight entertainment monitors that can swivel completely sideways, allowing passengers to sit facing each other in groups of two or four, creating more shared space.
The product is an update of the Middle Eastern airline’s existing business class product, “Qsuite,” introduced in 2017, and features a unique seating arrangement that allows groups to create an open-top “room” in the center of the cabin with sliding privacy doors, as well as fold-out screens that allow groups to watch the same monitor or create a shared table space.
Qatar Airways’ new business class product, the Qsuite Next Gen, features retractable screens.
CNBC
In its current configuration, Qatar Airways reserves four-seat QSuite seats for group bookings, and also offers single, twin and double seats, as well as facing two-seat “companion seats” with fold-out screens and a dining table between the seats.
Rolling out new business class seats across an airline’s fleet is a lengthy process that typically takes several years, as the upgrades are installed on new aircraft and retrofitted on planes already in service.
Qatar Airways has announced that the new seats will be installed on its Boeing 777-9 jets next year, after the US manufacturer’s new wide-body, long-range model has experienced lengthy delivery delays. Qatar Airways has also announced an order for 20 more Boeing 777-9s from Farnborough, bringing its total order for Boeing 777X jets to around 100.
Qatar Airways’ Qsuite Next Gen business class seat, unveiled at the Farnborough Airshow on July 22, 2024.
Qatar Airways
Turkish Airlines also made changes to its business-class cabin at the airshow, adding adjustable doors with privacy panels, a feature that has become standard in increasingly luxurious premium-class cabins in recent years.
With the economy stabilizing and latent demand unlocked, global business travel spending will rise 11.1% from a year ago to $1.48 trillion, industry group World Business Travel Association said in a report released Monday. That would be up from $1.43 trillion in 2019, before the pandemic halted nearly all business travel.
Business class, first class and, more recently, premium economy are the most profitable cabins for airlines, and demand for these seats is also being driven by the growing number of non-corporate travelers willing to pay for extra perks on board.
This allows U.S. airlines Some airlines, such as Singapore Airlines, are now offering private suites, and technological innovation is progressing in the front of the cabin around the world.
