Cathay Pacific locks in new A330 regional business class

Cathay Pacific will follow the debut of its new 777 Aria Suites business class with the rollout of business class beds on its Airbus A330 jets.

Those flatbeds will replace the current crop of regional business class recliners which debuted in late 2012 and now adorn 20 of the A330 workhorses in a 2-2-2 layout on short- and medium-range routes across Asia.

“In 2026, we will start to introduce our retrofitted A330 aircraft with a lie-flat regional business class product, and a refreshed economy class product as well,” Cathay Group CEO Ronald Lam said at a joint Airbus-Cathay Pacific media event in Hong Kong this week.

Cathay launched its current A330 regional business class recliners in 2012.

A Cathay Pacific spokesman confirmed to Executive Traveller that the new A330 regional business class seat has already been selected.

However, that’s just the first step in the process: the product now needs to be designed, customised and styled to make it a Cathay Pacific seat.

This end result is likely to take some visual cues from the Aria Suite and provide a degree of brand consistency across the Cathay fleet.

Cathay launched its current A330 regional business class recliners in 2012.

As previously reported, Cathay is also scoping out a potential new business class for its Airbus A350s as part of a “mid-life refresh” project.

And in 2028, Cathay will pick up the keys to the first of 30 factory-fresh Airbus A330neo aircraft – a modernised version of its venerable A330-300, officially dubbed the A330-900.

In a relatively rapid rollout, 30 of the twin-aisle jets are slated to arrive through to 2031 and will replace some of the older A330s as well as the handful of regional Boeing 777s.

David Flynn visited Hong Kong as a guest of Cathay Pacific