Air Canada is developing a new Boeing 787, 777 business class

Air Canada is preparing a second-generation business class for its Boeing 787 and 777 jets, with the Star Alliance member mindful of refits to the current fleet as well as adding the suites to as-yet-undelivered aircraft. 

“We’re working on the future of our wide-body product, because we're going to have to start retrofitting aircraft (soon),” Mark Nasr, Air Canada’s Executive Vice President Marketing and Digital, tells Executive Traveller.

“We took delivery of our first 787s nearly 10 years ago, so in the not-too-distant future they’ll be due for heavy maintenance and a retrofit…so that provides us the opportunity, whether it's on those aircraft or potentially at some point on new wide-bodies, to introduce a new long-haul product as well.”

Air Canada says it's time for a new Signature Class.

The news comes as the Canadian flag-carrier is said to be “advanced talks” with Boeing for another 15-20 787s, according to Bloomberg.

Air Canada’s current Dreamliner fleet totals 38, with 30 of those being the long-range 787-9 model; Nasr says the airline will take delivery of its next Boeing 787-9 in June, with another due “next year.”

The Boeing 787 is a workhorse of the Air Canada fleet, tackling key domestic east-west routes such as Vancouver-Toronto along with forays into the US plus globe-striding flights to the UK, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Each Air Canada Dreamliner is crowned by Signature Class seats launched in mid-2018, with flatbed business class pods based on the popular Collins Aerospace Super Diamond platform.

Collins has since evolved that seat into the Elements suite, which combines sliding privacy doors with improved passenger space and amenity; Starlux adopted Elements for its Starlux Airbus A350 business class, with its next appearance slated for Etihad Airways’ new Boeing 787s.

Etihad's new Boeing 787 business class seat is based on the Elements successor to the Super Diamond used by Air Canada.

Of course, there’s no shortage of alternatives from seat-makers in a highly-competitive market estimated to be worth some US$10 billion annually.

Air Canada is also developing a single-aisle Signature Class for its forthcoming Airbus A321XLR jets due from 2025, with those suites being developed by London-based studio Acumen and the airline’s in-house design team.

The A3212XLRs will debut “a new design standard for our cabins, our interiors, our lounges, really for all facets of our customer-facing experience,” Nasr says, and this will in turn feed into the new Boeing Signature Class.