IT’S HERE: Qatar’s ‘Qsuite Next Gen’ business class seat is unveiled – what’s new?
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The Qsuite Next Gen business class seat was unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow today.
Qatar Airways launched its Qsuite business class seat at the ITB Berlin travel show in February 2017. We were there for that, and it was genuinely a revolution in business class seating. You can read our most recent review of Qsuite here.
It was one of the first business class seats (together with the Delta One product) with doors, and started a trend for suites rather than seats inside business class cabins.
Seven years on, it remains one of the world’s best business class seats thanks to its spacious configuration that allows you to combine up to four seats into a shared ‘room’. The walls and doors on the suite remain higher than virtually all other business class suites out there.
Introducing Qsuite Next Gen at the Farnborough International Airshow today, Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al Meer decried the lack of competition from other airlines, saying:
“we are happy and sad at the same time: happy to know that something that we developed years ago is still the benchmark in our industry, and sad because we were expecting someone else to come and raise the benchmark for the satisfaction of our customers.”
“However, our team decided to take matters in their own hands. They decided to come and raise the benchmark once again.”
The result is Qsuite Next Gen, or Qsuite 2.0. Qatar’s new teaser video for Qsuite Next Gen gives you a good overview of what has changed:
Qsuite Next Gen: evolution or revolution?
The question on the tip of everyone’s tongue has been whether this new Qsuite product will be evolution or revolution of the existing seat. In other words, is it simply a tweaked version or has it been redesigned from the ground up?
The answer is a bit of both.
On the outside, it is an improvement of the existing Qsuite layout and design: 1-2-1 all aisle access, with half the seats forward facing and the other half rear facing. Visually, Qsuite Next Gen is a continuation, fine tuning what is already a market-leading product.
Internally, it is a different story. The seat has been redesigned from the ground up with manufacturing partner Adient Aerospace replacing Qatar’s previous partnership with Collins Aerospace, which manufactures the existing Qsuite cabin.
Qatar has previously partnered with Adient on the creation of the Premium Suite for the 787-9s, which is based on an off-the-shelf product. Qsuite Next Gen is a completely custom seat for Qatar Airways which marks it out from the vast majority of business class seats.
Nobody was very forthcoming when I asked why they had changed supplier!
Qatar Airways has improved companion and quad seating
One of the Qsuite’s unique selling points is the ability to combine four suites in the centre into a quad, with two forward-facing and two rear-facing.
Previously this was achieved with sliding centre dividers and monitors to create an open space in the centre. The problem was that there was still a significant obstruction between seats: after all, the inflight entertainment screens had to go somewhere.
The solution, on Qsuite Next Gen, has been to change this from a sliding to a folding mechanism, which allows these dividers to sit flush against the side walls of the suite, fully opening up the space:
Qatar Airways is also introducing the ability to create ‘Companion Suites’ between two seats in the window. This was not previously possible and opens up the ability for couples or pairs to enjoy the same benefits of combined suite. I can see this becoming a very popular option, particularly as these suites are adjacent to the windows.
The ‘Companion Suite’ concept is the one thing that is truly different about Qsuite Next Gen.
Bigger, better, lighter
Other changes to the seat are more iterative.
For a start, Qsuite Next Gen is lighter. Qatar Airways wouldn’t tell us how much lighter – “we don’t usually give out that information” – but the difference is likely to be substantial thanks to the newer, lighter and stronger materials being used. This reduces fuel burn which is better for both the planet and Qatar Airways’ bottom line.
Qsuite Next Gen is also 2″ wider, 1″ in longer (in bed mode) and 4.5″ wider in bed mode than the previous seat.
With the centre pair made up as a double bed suite it is, amazingly, almost 10″ wider than previously. These are small but welcome tweaks to an already spacious seat. As before, the seat tapers into a relatively deep cubby hole:
Additional storage options include slide-out trays as well as a lockable storage unit:
Qatar Airways has also taken the opportunity to upgrade the suite with the latest tech, including a 22″ Panasonic Astrova 4K OLED in-flight entertainment monitor as well as wireless charging, USB-C, USB-A and 110 volt power outlets. Bluetooth connectivity for personal headphones is also coming.
Meanwhile, the tray table is even bigger, probably about twice the size of most other business class seats:
What aircraft will Qsuite Next Gen be installed on?
What hasn’t changed with Qsuite Next Gen is the cabin space requirements. Qsuite Next Gen will continue to be a seat that can only be installed on the largest widebodies – think the A350 and Boeing 777X.
This means that retrofitting it on smaller widebodies, such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, is out of the question. It is simply too wide.
For now, Qatar Airways has committed to installing Qsuite Next Gen on the Boeing 777X fleet, which it still optimistically believes will arrive in late 2025. Whether Boeing can stick to that schedule remains to be seen, but I’d be surprised to see it before the middle of 2026 given current delays.
No commitment has been made to retrofitting the existing fleet. A significant number of A350-900s and Boeing 777s do not currently have Qsuite at all: the sensible thing would be to install Qsuite Next Gen on these, but at least for now Qatar Airways is playing its cards close to its chest.
Qsuite Next Gen stats
- Seat width (in arm): 23″
- Seat pitch: 100″
- Bed length: 80″
- Bed width: 27.5″
- Double bed width: 58.6″
- Suite height: 56.25″
- Meal table size: 20″ x 25″ (bifold)
- IFE monitor size 22″ Panasonic Astrova 4k OLED
Conclusion
At first glance, Qsuite Next Gen might seem like a modest improvement to the original Qsuite. Delve a a little deeper and the opposite is true. What Qatar Airways has done is taken an industry-leading seat and made it even better.
This includes:
- the highest suite walls in business class for the industry
- the unique ability to combine four suites into quads, now rolled out to window pairs for true face-to-face seating
- wider and longer beds, bigger tray tables and updated tech
Now all we have to do is wait!
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