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Air New Zealand has revealed the new cabins that it will fit to its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and which will be replacing the old (and much disliked) herringbone seating that has been on board for longer than most can remember.
The retrofit covers Business Premier and Economy Class with Premium Economy mostly unchanged as that cabin has already had a makeover. Here’s what’s changing, cabin by cabin, and how it stacks up against the seat Air New Zealand is fitting to its 787-9 Dreamliners.
The timeline
The first 777-300ER is expected to enter the retrofit programme in March 2027 and is scheduled to be back in service by May 2027 and, presumably (Air New Zealand hasn’t said) the remaining 777-300ERs (not including the former Cathay Pacific aircraft) will follow from there.
Business Premier
The current Business Premier cabin on the 777 uses a herringbone layout that dates back to when the aircraft first joined the fleet in late 2010 and, frankly, it’s horrible.
I freely admit that I haven’t experienced this product on Air New Zealand, but I’ve suffered it on Virgin Atlantic (which is still inflicting the cabin on its customers on a lot of aircraft) and I hated it. No privacy, no space to store anything and if you’re in the center or on the right side of the aircraft, you spend the whole of the flight looking towards another passenger.
The new seat that Air New Zealand is introducing is the Collins Aerospace Elevation suite in a reverse herringbone layout, which means every passenger faces either a window or the centre of the aircraft rather than looking across the aisle at the person opposite.
The key features of the Business Premier cabin include:
- 44 seats (the same as the current Business Class cabin)
- Seats offering 43″ pitch which convert into a lie-flat bed
- A door at every seat
- Sliding privacy dividers on the centre seats
- 18″ entertainment screens with Bluetooth audio
- USB-A and USB-C charging
Effectively, this is the same seat that you’ll find British Airways offering as its Club Suite (reviewed here) and that’s good news because (a) the Club Suite is very good and (b) because we can be sure that this will be a gigantic step up on Air New Zealand’s 777-300ERs.
Premium Economy
This cabin is staying as it currently is as the cabin went through a refresh over the past year with new seat covers and curtains, and that’s what will remain. The only change is that the cabin is losing two seats.
Economy Class
Economy Class on the Air New Zealand 777-300ERs is, apparently, getting new “ergonomic seats” from ZIM alongside upgraded screens. The cabin is also getting two extra seats to give it a capacity of 246 (this includes 16 Skycouch rows).
The key features of the new Economy Class cabin include:
- 246 seats (two more than the current layout)
- “Economy Stretch” seats with 35″ pitch (count not given)
- Standard Economy Class seats with 31″ to 32″ pitch (count not give)
- 13″ entertainment screens with Bluetooth audio
- USB-C charging
How this compares to the Air New Zealand 787-9
This is where it gets interesting, because, a little surprisingly, this new 777 seat is different to the seat that Air New Zealand is currently fitting to its 787-9 Dreamliners.
The 787-9 is getting a bespoke Safran seat which, on paper, wins on technology and space with a much larger 24″ screen (vs 18″), wireless charging, and more storage.
On the 787-9, however, the only seats which get a full closing door are the Business Premier Luxe seats which are the larger front-row suites that cost extra to book. The Standard Business Premier seats on the Dreamliner only get a partial privacy screen.
In the new 777 Business Premier cabin, every one of the 44 seats gets the same suite with full door.
What Air New Zealand will end up with is two long-haul aircraft offering genuinely different propositions. The 787-9 has the more modern feeling seat and a paid step-up to a true suite while the 777 gives everyone in the cabin a door as standard, which for a lot of travellers may end up being the thing that actually matters (although both are clearly very good options).
Bottom line
This is good news out of Air New Zealand. The current 777 Business Premier seat is one of the worst Business Class products still flying in a major airline, so seeing that ripped out and replaced with a reverse herringbone suite with a door at every seat is a great move.
The fact that Air New Zealand doesn’t appear to have used the retrofit to cram in more Business Class seats (or claw back space in Economy at everyone’s expense) makes it better still.
The first aircraft should start flying in mid-2027 so we don’t have long to wait before the Air New Zealand 777-300ERs stop being aircraft for Business Class to avoid at all costs and become aircraft worth booking.
