In August last year, Malaysia Airlines made headlines by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with European manufacturer Airbus as part of its widebody fleet renewal program. This will see it take on the Airbus A330neo, and the carrier is looking to its oneworld partner British Airways for business class seat inspiration.
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Drawing on a well-known product
Malaysia Airlines’ MoU for 20 examples of the larger A330-900 variant of the Airbus A330neo series is, as reported at the time by Simple Flying, to be split between 10 purchased and 10 leased aircraft. Looking to replace older A330 family jets, as well as cover capacity lost with the attempted sale of certain A380s, Malaysia Airlines’ deliveries of the Airbus A330-900 are set to begin in the winter of 2024.
This, as it happens, will coincide with the introduction of a new long-haul business class seat with the carrier. As revealed by Head For Points in an interview with Captain Izham Ismail, the Malaysian flag carrier’s CEO, these seats will also eventually be retrofitted to the airline’s Airbus A350-900s. This will begin in 2026.
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The seat in question is the Collins Aerospace Elevation, which is a doored version of the company’s Super Diamond product. The latter of these is known for its use in British Airways’ ‘Club Suite’ long-haul business class cabins, as pictured above. The use of a fully-closing door will give the seat an added degree of privacy.
The configuration question
According to the aforementioned Head For Points interview, Malaysia Airlines plans to configure its Airbus A330-900 aircraft with 28 of these enclosed business class seats. Laid out in a window-facing 1-2-1 herringbone configuration, this amounts to seven rows, with no staggering as is seen in other business class cabins.
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This differs, for example, from the setup on Malaysia Airlines’ existing Airbus A330-200 and -300 aircraft. Indeed, data from aeroLOPA shows that the former of these has 19 business class seats, with the middle pairs alternating between together and separated configurations. Meanwhile, the carrier’s A330-300s have 27 business class seats, with the right side alternating between thrones and pairs.
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Malaysia Airlines won’t be the only major Asian carrier to have these seats onboard its long-haul aircraft. Indeed, Head For Points notes that a similar product can also be found on Airbus A380s and Boeing 787s at Qatar Airways.
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A350 retrofit will mark the end of an era
The airline’s plans to also install new business class seats on its A350-900s will mean that these aircraft see a shakeup in terms of their configuration. Specifically, the cabin refurbishment will result in the removal of the aircraft’s four ‘Business Suites,’ a more exclusive product that occupies the front row of the A350.
Speaking to Head For Points, Izham Ismail stated that “at the moment, we enjoy four business suites, so we will get rid of those because that’s a lot of real estate on the aircraft.” Swapping these spacious seats for the new, more compact product will likely result in an increase in overall business class capacity on the A350.
