Cathay Pacific will be making changes to the layout of its Airbus A321neos, to make the plane more comfortable for both passengers and crew, which is a pretty rare thing in the industry nowadays, eh? While we first learned that these changes were coming at the beginning of the year, we’ve now learned more about what all this will entail.
Cathay Pacific plans Airbus A321neo cabin changes
Cathay Pacific has a total of (at least) 30 Airbus A321neo aircraft on order, with roughly half of those planes having already been delivered. This is the Hong Kong-based carrier’s only narrow body plane, and the backstory is quite interesting.
These planes were first ordered for Cathay Pacific regional subsidiary Cathay Dragon, but Cathay Pacific decided to merge Cathay Dragon into the mainline fleet several years back, and in the process, these narrow body planes also joined Cathay Pacific’s fleet. Since then, the airline has even expanded its order, recognizing the value these planes bring to the fleet.
While Cathay Pacific has very high service standards across the board, these planes definitely aren’t the most comfortable in the fleet, as you’d expect. The planes have a total of 202 seats, including 12 recliner business class seats and 190 economy class seats.
With that in mind, Cathay Pacific has committed to introducing a new layout on these planes, centered around a few improvements:
- Cathay Pacific will partially increase seat pitch in economy, so the airline will be removing some seats in order to improve legroom; economy seat pitch on these planes is currently 30″, which compares unfavorably to the rest of the fleet
- Cathay Pacific plans to move a couple of the rear lavatories forward of the rear doors, in order to make them more spacious; currently the A321neos have a couple of those super tight lavatories that have become pretty standard on A320-family aircraft
- Cathay Pacific plans to increase rear galley space, to make it easier for the crews to work; this is made possible by moving the lavatories forward
Unfortunately the airline also doesn’t have plans to introduce new business class seats, even as rivals increasingly introduce flat beds on some regional narrow body aircraft (China Airlines, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, etc.).
If you’re curious about how the layout is changing, below are the seat maps comparing the old and new layout.
The updated interior will boast 195 seats, including 12 business class seats and 183 economy seats, meaning that a total of seven seats have been removed.
What I actually find most noteworthy is how the emergency exit setup is changing. The planes go from having one set of mid-cabin exit rows and one set of rear exit rows, to having two sets of mid-cabin exit rows, which is definitely more efficient.
There’s also a general renumbering of rows, to more closely match row numbers you’d find on long haul aircraft. You wouldn’t expect to find a row 69 on a narrow body plane!
The timeline with which Cathay Pacific plans changes
When can we expect Cathay Pacific’s new Airbus A321neo layout? Cathay Pacific currently has 16 A321neos in its fleet, and plans to take delivery of its 17th shortly (in the coming weeks), and that should be the first plane with the new layout. The remaining A321neos to be delivered will also all come with these cabins installed.
On top of that, in the coming weeks, the airline plans to retrofit its 16 existing A321neos, as fleet consistency is a priority. That project is expected to be carried out pretty quickly, so it could be that this entire project is done by the end of 2026.
Bottom line
It’s incredibly rare to see an airline remove seats from a plane in order to improve comfort, but that’s exactly what Cathay Pacific is doing on its narrow body aircraft. In the coming weeks and months we should see some changes to Cathay Pacific’s A321neo fleet, including an increase to seat pitch in economy, more spacious lavatories in the back of the plane, and more galley space.
The planes will go from having 202 seats to 195 seats, but the efficiency gains are even bigger than that, due to how exit rows are being reworked. This is a mighty customer friendly move for an airline to make, and that’s not something we often see.
What do you make of Cathay Pacific’s A321neo plans?