Yes, these sparkly new seats are on British Airways, in fact they are already being rolled out on the carrier’s ‘sunshine routes’ from their hub in Gatwick. Retrofitting their fleet of 777s means they are removing some of their business class cabin to fit a larger World Traveller Plus cabin and even sneak in a few extra economy seats.
While this means that the chance of people being able to upgrade to Club World has diminished, there are more options for passengers looking to pay only a little extra for relative comfort. Although the images might be impressing you so far, be warned, these are the Premium Economy ‘World Traveller Plus’ seats. While they aren’t the same model as they have on their Heathrow routes, they offer a similar product, with wide arm rests separating the seats and large IFE touch-screens.
The new seats have been developed by the airline’s in-house design teams. For the new World Traveller Plus seats the team have introduced features such as new leg and footrests, as well as an improved fully adjustable six-way headrest to suit customers of all heights.
In economy, the airline is boasting larger 10″ IFE screens, a six-way headrest with adjustable ears for added comfort and movable middle arm rests, aimed for travelling pairs.
But if you look again at the cabin photo, you might notice things look a little tighter, that is because the airline has gone 10-across in it’s 777 economy cabin, something they chose not to highlight in their recent press release. While its a disappointment – as British Airways was one of only a few airlines to still offer nine across – it was inevitable that this change was going to happen.
The airline has worked hard however to distract their economy class passengers, with the addition of better entertainment, mood lighting and intelligent seats that offer bi-fold tables and USB charging, to make the most of the passengers personal space. These improvements are lightyears ahead of the older British Airways seats, which might have been comfortable, offered an inferior passenger experience.
The good, or bad news, depending how you look at it, is that the new economy seats will eventually be rolled out across the airline’s Heathrow fleet too, starting in the Autumn of 2019.
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