Cathay to remove first class from 777-300ERs

Cathay Pacific will remove first class across its 777-300ER fleet, replacing the dated suites with its all-new high-privacy business class pods.

The move will make Cathay first class exclusive to its Boeing 777-9 jets, which are due to arrive from 2025 with a luxurious new first class design which could possibly carry the ‘Halo’ brand.

Vivian Lo, Cathay’s General Manager of Customer Experience and Design, confirmed the 777 revamp to Executive Traveller during an interview on the sidelines of the airline’s 2024 premium economy launch.

Going, going, gone: Cathay Pacific's iconic and still much-loved Boeing 777 first class.

“Eventually the current first class will be replaced by the new first class in the 777-9,” Lo told Executive Traveller, so that the 777-300ERs “will just be three cabins: business, premium economy and economy.” 

This will avoid the obvious complication of trying to justify the higher price of a first class ticket on jets where the business class offering will be markedly superior, at least in practical terms of the ‘hard product’ of the seat and video screen.

Cathay Pacific's new Aria Suites business class will replace first class across the 777-300ER fleet.

Cathay’s current six-berth Boeing 777-300ER first class debuted in 2007, with revamps in 2013 and 2017 – and despite its age, the spacious ‘open suite’ design remains a favourite of travellers, especially when paired with Cathay’s high standards in first class food, drinks and service.

Upgrading the Boeing 777-300ERs with the new Aria Suites business class will begin mid-year and is expected to take as much as three years, through to mid-2027.

However, those 777-300ER first class suites will still be flying for some years to come, as the first-equipped jets won’t go under the knife until towards the end of the refurbishment program.

Going, going, gone: Cathay Pacific's iconic and still much-loved Boeing 777 first class.

“The transition (to a three-class 300ER fleet) will be a managed process,” the airline says, with the revamp schedule avoiding “an immediate impact on current first class operation.”

"There is no immediate impact on our first class network,” Lo added. “A core network will be maintained and while there would be eventually some reduction in capacity it would only be around the tail end of the transition.”

21 of the 30 Boeing 777-300ERs being upgraded to Aria spec are crowned by first class, with the same number of 777-9s on order.

And despite business class pushing into the pointy end of those 777-300ERs, the number of business class seats offered as a whole isn’t expected to largely change.

Most of the additional overall space will be taken up by premium economy, which is expanding from 32 seats to 48 seats – a 50% increase which speaks to Cathay’s confidence in the growth of the premium economy segment.

David Flynn visited Hong Kong as a guest of Cathay Pacific.