Cathay Pacific took the wraps off its newest business-class seat today, showing off its new “Aria Suite” at a preview event in a hangar at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). The airline first revealed plans for the new Aria Suite back in March 2024, though the carrier has been relatively quiet about it until now, only saying that the new suites would appear later this year aboard Cathay’s Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Well, it looks like the first plane with the new suites is just about ready to take flight later this week — and TPG got a sneak peek at the airline’s event.
Cathay Pacific has been flying a consistent version of its current business class (with some updates as newer aircraft like the Airbus A350 have gone into service) for over a decade now, so the introduction of the Aria Suite represents a big step into the future for the airline.
Aria is an outward-facing herringbone pod that reclines to flat, outfitted in a series of light brown neutrals with accents in a creamy, pale green that’s a less-saturated version of the previous Cathay business palette, yet still identifiable enough to provide brand continuity.
The materials look pleasingly understated and residential: “soft-touch suede walls, natural wool seat fabric, and gold-accented touchpoints”, the airline says.
These light browns are shown to great effect with the muted, atmospheric lighting, but one does wonder how this will hold up to wear — and indeed in the event that crew go for bright white all-on lighting rather than a more generously lit preset.
Given the height of the renderings versus the 777’s window frames, this looks to be in the mini-suite rather than the maxi-suite category. Cathay will still be installing a first class product so that decision makes some sense in product differentiation terms.
A 24-inch 4K screen is mounted directly in front of the passenger, but the proof will be in the 4K content pudding here, since watching a movie in 720p or 480p doesn’t improve with screen size.
Bluetooth pairing will also be possible, and there’s wireless charging on the higher surface of the side console, plus AC power and USB-A and USB-C.
The slide-away drawer console with the “empty your pockets/handbag” storage is slick and convenient, while underneath the side console is a touchscreen passenger control unit immediately next to the armrest.
This is usually something of an experience red flag, since a stray wrist will start the seat moving, although it is ringed with a protector reminiscent of what modern phone cases do to protect the camera bump.
While Cathay says that the seat can also be controlled via the IFE screen, your author will certainly miss the simple, clear rocker switches in the shape of the seat that featured in the “tower of power” on the older seats.
The bifold pull-forward table with its integrated PED slot looks excellent, although it will be interesting to see how thick it is — will passengers need to pull phones and tablets out of cases to get the right angle?
In its context, looking at the LOPA (layout of passenger accommodations) seat maps for the new Aria aircraft (code 77J), there’s a balancing out of passengers between the two business class sections of the cabin, even as the airline adds an overall five seats to its business class total.
The forward cabin between doors 1 and 2 is reduced by a seat, with the rear seat on the left-hand-side replaced by the doors 2 lavatory, moving up from its previous place behind doors 2. The rear cabin is up to five rows from three-and-a-half, with the LOPA suggesting this comes both from monument optimisation and from extending the business class cabin backwards.
It will be fascinating to see how this balances out the inflight service between the two cabins — at times, the mini-cabin behind doors 2 has fallen as something of an afterthought in terms of service.
This doesn’t look like a just-the-seats refurb either: lavatories and galleys around both doors 1 and 2 are moving, and indeed Cathay says that the aircraft will have lavatories nose to tail, including touchless flush, foot-activated bin, infrared faucet and three-stage lighting.
It’s pleasing to see that the doors 2 lavatory will retain its suitability for passengers with reduced mobility.
With recent configurations and reconfigurations on multiple airlines, there are no such lavatories in business class, meaning that passengers who need to use one are sent halfway down the aircraft to the convertible double-walled economy class lavatory.
Overall, there seem to be many upgrades and few downsides to the new seat. One regrettable choice, however, is the placement of the side console storage on the outboard seats, parallel to the sidewall and almost entirely blocking one of the windows.
Cathay’s LOPA seat maps don’t show the positioning of the windows per seat, but the 777 does have missing windows, and it seems a waste to block one off in any case — especially when there doesn’t seem to be much reason not to install it perpendicular to the sidewall.
It’s also notable that the highest wear points of the side console edge are a wraparound curved surface. Whether this is a molded, pattern-infused thermoplastic or an applied foil, one really must wonder how this will hold up to passenger use.
Aria starts service this week to Beijing, and the short hop across China will enable crew familiarisation before longhaul services to Europe start in early 2025.
