Three new business class seat designs we'll see in 2016

Qantas is in the home stretch of its A330 fleet-wide upgrade to the impressive Business Suite, and Virgin Australia has finally begun flying its new business class on trans-Pacific Boeing 777s.

But there are a few more new seat designs yet to take to the skies this year. Here's a rundown of what's on the radar.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 business class

Look for Cathay Pacific's first Airbus A350 to take to the skies by the end of this month or very early June sporting revamp of the popular business class seat first launched in 2011.

Travellers will notice improvements in storage space, the ability to slide the meal table forward and back, and a degree of tilt for the large HD video screen – plus, in a first for Cathay Pacific, inflight Internet.

The fleet of twenty A350-900 jets is first bound for London (in early September) and by year's end Auckland, and will slowly take over the Airbus A330 routes into Australia.

Qatar Airways 'Super Business Class'

Skipping down the calendar to November will see Qatar Airways reveal a new 'super business class’ seat to narrow the gap between business class and first class.

The seat will feature sliding doors to convert it into a suite-like cabin, similar to a prototype design proposed by British firm DCA Design International for Singapore Airlines (below).

Also on the cards for at least the middle seats is a ‘double bed’, according to Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker, who boasts it “will frankly be first class at a business class fare.”

The Super Business Class berth will likely debut on a Boeing 777-300ER, and then be followed by Airbus A350s, including the first long-range Airbus A350-1000 in March 2017.

“Then we have a retrofit program where we will retrofit every aircraft in the fleet” at a rate of “three aircraft a month," Al Baker predicts.

Read more: Qatar Airways to reveal 'Super Business Class' seat in November

Emirates Boeing 777-300ER Business Class

Also taking wing in November: Emirates' new Boeing 777 business class seat, which will be fitted to all factory-fresh Boeing 777-300ER jets (but not the current Boeing 777 current fleet, which will be headed to pasture from 2020 once Emirates starts to fly the next-gen Boeing 777X as part of a sweeping overhaul).

As we've previously reported, the seats convert to a fully-flat bed – unlike the angled sleepers of today’s Boeing 777 business class – and are outfitted with a mini-bar and massive 23 inch personal video screen.

But the 2-3-2 layout makes no allowance for direct aisle access by the passenger in the middle seat, who'll instead need to step past or over their seatmates to get to the aisle.

This video offers a guided tour of the new seat:

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