British Airways Unveils Brand New First Class Seat
British Airways unveiled this week its new First class seat design. The new cabin forms part of the airline’s A380 retrofit plans, which is expected to take to the skies in mid-2026.
The airline’s new First class seats has been carefully designed to provide the feel of a modern luxury hotel, alongside home comforts and thoughtful British touches at 35,000ft.
The new seat is ultra-wide at 36.5 inches, with a bed length of 79 inches, and features a multi-purpose ottoman and stowable table, a 32-inch 4K TV screen, adjustable mood lighting including scenes such as ‘relax’, ‘dine’ and ‘cinema’.
The larger seats are designed for a 1-2-1 configuration with three rows for a total of 12 seats, replacing the current 14-seat A380 BA first class layout.
The seat can be adjusted with the touch of a button to find the perfect level of comfort and is located within a cocooned 60-inch curved wall for ultimate privacy. For customers travelling together in the center of the cabin, the divider slides open to create a shared lounge space.
Elsewhere, the suite features an ambient light with a design that subtly references the airline’s speedmarque and further nods to Concorde. The suite features window blinds, activated by buttons on the internal control panel for all three windows per seat. The soft paneling inside the seat also helps with acoustics and absorbing sound, which adds to the sense of being in a cocooned, private space.
British Airways has not revealed yet which route will be the first to offer the new design in 2026, but the BA A380 currently flies to Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston, as well as Johannesburg and Singapore.
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