Which airlines have lie-flat business class seats on intra-Europe flights?

A handful of airlines operate UK and European flights with lie-flat business class seats.

Booking these flights can often be a good way of experiencing an airline’s business class product without the expense (or time) of flying long haul.

Whilst we have long written about the ability to fly with Avios on wide body aircraft between London and Madrid (on Iberia) and London to Helsinki (on Finnair), we thought it was worth updating our full list for 2023.

I pulled this list together by running a search for particular aircraft types via Cirium’s aviation database. This search was performed for August 2023. Let us know in the comments if we have missed anything.

There is one caveat to this list. Some airlines operate A321LR fleets which are single aisle aircraft equipped for long haul flights of 6-7 hours, usually from Western Europe to the US East Coast. We cannot identify these flights in the schedules vs standard A321 services.

TAP Portugal in particular has a number of A321LR aircraft with flat beds in Business Class which see occasional service intra-Europe from Lisbon, including to London and Frankfurt.

Intra-Europe flights with lie-flat business class seats

Remember that this list is based on August 2023 schedules. Whilst the bulk of these routes are permanently running with long haul aircraft, we can’t guarantee what may be bookable for future dates.

Air France

New to this list for 2023 is Air France, which has decided to place some of its widebodies on a handful of short haul flights this year:

• Paris Orly – Bastia (thrice weekly 777)
• Paris Charles de Gaulle – Nice (weekly A330)

Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus operates a couple of holiday routes on its A330 aircraft.

Some flights to London also get the airline’s latest A321LR aircraft, which is a modified narrow body aircraft with a proper business class cabin. Instead of having these aircraft sitting idle during the day waiting for their return flight to the US, they operate on short haul. We know about London to Dublin but – as per the disclaimer above – there may be others we can’t identify from the schedules.

• Faro – Dublin (daily A330)
• London – Dublin (A321LR)
• Malaga – Dublin (daily A330)

Air Europa

Spanish airline Air Europa (which BA’s parent IAG is acquiring) runs a number of wide body services throughout Europe, including:

• Amsterdam – Madrid (3 weekly 787)
• Barcelona – Madrid (double daily 787)
• Gran Canaria – Madrid (4 weekly 787)
• Milan – Madrid (3/4 weekly 787)
• Rome – Madrid (3/4 weekly 787)
• Tenerife – Madrid (3/4 weekly 787)

The 787-9s feature a 1-2-1 layout whilst the older 787-8s have a 2-2-2 layout, but both are flat bed.

Condor

Condor, the German leisure charter airline, launched a number of new A330 routes this summer, including:

• Frankfurt – Mallorca (3/4 weekly A330)
• Düsseldorf – Mallorca (double daily A330)

These routes use leased A330-200 aircraft and feature ex-Etihad business class seats so these flights should be quite smart.

Emirates

You probably weren’t expecting to see this Dubai-based airline offering short haul flights in Europe, but Emirates does offer a fifth freedom sector that can be booked separately from the Dubai flights:

• Larnaca – Malta (daily 777-300ER)

Separately from the main discussion here, it is also worth remembering that Emirates runs three fifth freedom routes from Europe to the Americas. It is handy if you have Emirates Skywards miles to burn. These are:

• Milan to New York JFK
• Athens to New York JFK
• Barcelona to Mexico City

Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines is a strong believer in running fifth freedom flights in Europe to allow it to mop up passengers from cities which cannot sustain their own direct service:

• Stockholm – Oslo (daily 787-9)
• Copenhagen – Vienna (3/4 weekly 787-9)
• Manchester – Geneva (5 weekly A350 – read our report here!)
• Milan – Zurich (4 weekly A350)

Finnair

Finnair operates a number of wide bodies to European cities:

• Amsterdam – Helsinki (5 weekly A350)
• Brussels – Helsinki (daily A330/A350)
• London Heathrow – Helsinki (double daily A350)

Finnair’s A330s and A350s now feature the revolutionary new no-recline business class seat which we tried here.

Iberia

The wide body Iberia flights to Heathrow are the ones we cover the most. These are flown for cargo reasons to connect IAG siblings British Airways and Iberia.

• London – Madrid (double daily – combination of A330 and A350)
• Milan – Madrid (twice weekly A330/A350)

Lufthansa

Lufthansa now operates a handful of widebody flights between its hubs, presumably to facilitate freight connections:

• Frankfurt – Munich (2/3 weekly 787-9)

Singapore Airlines

You probably weren’t expecting to see Singapore Airlines on this list, but the airline has reinstated a ‘fifth freedom’ route:

• Barcelona – Milan (A350 every 2-3 days)

Scoot, Singapore Airlines’ low cost subsidiary, is also running a fifth freedom route between Athens and Berlin, although Scoot only has a premium economy-style forward cabin.

Separately from the main discussion here, it is also worth remembering that Singapore Airlines runs fifth freedom flights from Manchester to Houston and Frankfurt to New York.

SWISS

Another new entrant this year, with a limited number of widebody routes in Europe:

• Malaga – Zurich (2/3 weekly A340)
• Athens – Zurich (weekly A330/A340)
• Geneva – Zurich (weekly 777)
• Mallorca – Zurich (twice weekly A340)

Turkish Airlines

Unsurprisingly, Turkish Airlines tops out this list thanks to its continent-straddling location. A lot of these are operated with A330s, which may only feature angle-flat seats.

In August 2023 it is currently timetabling:

• Amsterdam – Istanbul (thrice daily A330)
• Ankara – Istanbul (daily A330/777)
• Antalya – Istanbul (double/triple daily)
• Athens – Istanbul (daily A330/A350/787/777)
• Barcelona – Istanbul (double daily A330)
• Berlin – Istanbul (double daily A330/A350)
• Bodrum – Istanbul (12 weekly A330/777)
• Bodrum – Vnukovo (daily 777)
• Brussels – Istanbul (3/4 weekly A330)
• Budapest – Istanbul (1 monthly A330)
• Dalaman – Istanbul (1 weekly A330/787)
• Dublin – Istanbul (4 weekly A330)
• Dusseldorf – Istanbul (double daily A330)
• Edinburgh – Istanbul (weekly A330)
• Frankfurt – Istanbul (thrice daily A330)
• Hamburg – Istanbul (daily A330)
• Izmir – Istanbul (daily 777)
• London Heathrow – Istanbul (twice daily A330/777)
• Manchester – Istanbul (twice daily A330)
• Paris – Istanbul (thrice daily A330)
• Rome – Istanbul (daily A330)
• Stockholm – Istanbul (weekly A330)

At least a couple of Turkish Airlines’ A330s are configured for regional flights, which means you’ll be stuck with a premium-economy style seat at best. I’ll let you do the research on that …..

These flights come with a warning

Don’t forget that you may find last-minute aircraft changes on many of these flights. You are clearly safe if you book Singapore Airlines from Barcelona to Milan, but Turkish Airlines could easily swap to a short haul aircraft for Frankfurt to Istanbul.

Many (if not most) airlines will not consider a change of equipment as a reason for compensation or rebooking.

If you are planning a trip to any of the destinations on the list above, these are the flights to focus on. It should be easier than usual to get Avios seats on Finnair and Iberia given the greater capacity.