Cathay Pacific Unveils Its New ‘Aria Suite’ Business-Class Seat

Updated: October 16, 2024, 4:09pm CDT

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Table of Contents

What’s New in Cathay Pacific’s Aria Suites?
No First Class
When Will Aria Suites Fly to the U.S.?
Final Thoughts

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Cathay Pacific has revealed the new business class seat to be installed on the backbone of its long-haul fleet, the Boeing 777-300ER. The airline calls it the Aria Suite and unveiled it during an event held at its home base in Hong Kong.

The new seat will begin flying this month on short-haul routes and will eventually make its way to the U.S., when more 777s are refurbished with the new cabin.

The event, first reported by TPG, showcased the first of the 30 B777s to feature the new cabin. The biggest innovation is that the seat now has a sliding door, keeping with the latest trend in business-class seats. This is the first time that Cathay has installed a door on its seats.

What’s New in Cathay Pacific’s Aria Suites?

Rather than a revolutionary change, Aria Suites are a better version of the current cabin. Something that hasn’t changed is that the new seats are in a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone layout, like the outgoing business class.

Besides the sliding door, the new seats also have a high shell providing increased privacy.

Cathay Pacific Aria Suites seat — The new seat concept. Image Credit: Cathay Pacific

The other major innovation is the entertainment system, now featuring a much bigger 24-inch screen with 4K definition. The system has Bluetooth audio connectivity, so passengers can use their own headphones. In its page about the new business class, Cathay also says that the new seat allows syncing the entertainment system with a companion and keeps track of lavatory occupancy.

There’s also wireless charging as well as USB-A and USB-C hookups to go with the free Wi-Fi.

Aria Suites also go of the classic Cathay Pacific corporate-signature green in favor of brown and sand tones. Another element that Cathay singles out in its page about this new business class is “Gallery in the skies,” which places works of art on board by artists with a connection to Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific Aria Suites Art — “Gallery in the skies” concept artwork. Image Credit: Cathay Pacific

No First Class

A big change aboard the refurbished 777s is that they will no longer have a first class.

To see the return of first class on Cathay, we will have to wait until the airline gets the Boeing 777-9s it has ordered, which will feature a new version of the first-class cabin. It’s unclear when that will be, though, because Boeing has just announced a delay in the delivery of the new jet until at least 2026.

The other long-haul airplane in Cathay’s fleet is the Airbus A350, which does not have first class and is currently not slated to get the Aria Suites.

When Will Aria Suites Fly to the U.S.?

While we do not know when the new product will begin serving the U.S., we know that Cathay currently sends 777s to Los Angeles (LAX) and also uses them on 1 of its 3 daily flights to New York City (JFK). The daily flight to Vancouver (YVR) in Canada is also served by the 777s. So, if nothing changes, that’s where you might expect to find Aria Suites. There is no official schedule yet for their debut on the North American market.

The other North American destinations — Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), San Francisco (SFO), and Toronto (YYZ), plus the other flights to JFK — are served by A350s.

Hot Tip:

A great way to redeem points to fly Cathay Pacific’s excellent business class is through its 2 U.S.-based alliance partners, Alaska Airlines and American Airlines.

According to press from the event, the airline said it will refurbish around 1 airplane per month. With 29 left to modify, it will take almost 2 and a half years to install Aria Suites on the entire fleet, which will take until early 2027.

Cathay Pacific Aria Suites seat reclined — Image Credit: Cathay Pacific

Before then, the way to know if your plane has Aria is to look at the Cathay Pacific 777 seat map. If you are on a version designated by the airline as 77J, it’s the new version. If your plane has first class, then it’s by definition without Aria.

For now, the 77J configuration is debuting on routes between Hong Kong and Beijing starting October 18.

Final Thoughts

The debut of the new Aria Suites business class on Cathay Pacific’s Boeing 777s is an incremental, and welcome, change to an excellent product.

It’s also good news for people who want to fly premium cabins, because the new configuration gains 5 business-class seats and 16 premium economy seats — coming at the expense of coach class, which will be smaller by 28 seats (while also being a refurbished version of the current seat).

You may have to wait a while to see the new suites at an airport near you, though, because it will take until 2027 to refurbish the entire fleet.