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REVEALED: Here is the new British Airways A380 First Class seat!

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After five years of development, British Airways has unveiled its new First Class seat which will initially be installed on the A380 fleet and, if Boeing ever delivers them, the 777X fleet.

We don’t have a lot of information to date – we haven’t got a seat map yet – but we’ll tell you what we know.

The seat is from Collins Aerospace and manufactured in Northern Ireland. It is apparently the first time that this factory has been used for a First Class product.

new British Airways A380 First Class seat

To quote BA:

“Our new First has been designed with ultimate customer comfort in mind and pays tribute to the iconic British Airways brand and heritage, including a number of elements taking inspiration from Concorde and its one-of-a-kind wing.”

new British Airways A380 First Class seat

Features include:

  • an ultra-wide seat (36.5 inches) with a bed length of 79 inches
  • multi-purpose ottoman and elegant stowable table
new British Airways A380 First Class seat
  • a 32-inch 4K TV screen
  • cocooned five foot (152cm) curved wall
  • window blinds, activated by buttons on the internal control panel for all three windows per seat
new British Airways A380 First Class seat
  • adjustable mood lighting including scenes such as ‘relax’, ‘dine’ and ‘cinema’
  • luggage storage (‘customers can now simply wheel their luggage into their personal luggage space’)
  • ”do not disturb’ functionality
new British Airways A380 First Class seat

As you can from the second photograph down, the centre seats (like the Qatar Airways Qsuite) can be combined into a two-person space.

new British Airways A380 First Class seat

It will be either a 12 or 14 seat cabin. The full layout, we believe, is 12 or 14 x First, 110 x Club Suite, 84 x World Traveller Plus and 215 x World Traveller.

new British Airways A380 First Class seat

We are still hearing different stories about whether First will be upstairs or downstairs on the A380.

new British Airways A380 First Class seat

Due to the slippage of the A380 refurbishment programme, the first aircraft with new seat is not expected until ‘early 2026’.

new British Airways A380 First Class seat

More to follow!


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Comments (126)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • SammyJ says:

    “an ultra-wide seat (36.5 inches)”

    Presumably they mean the entire seat pod rather than the actual seat? Would be interested to know how wide the actual seat part of the seat is out of that space!

  • Phil G says:

    I’ve just come back from MEX and there’s simply no consistency in First. Crew fab, but Concorde lounge breakfast and service dreadful on way out. The hostess clearly didn’t want to be there, and neither did I by the time I left. Food out okay, but food back disgusting. I’ve had better in a motorway service station. No seafood/fish on either starter or main selection. Only 2 pies loaded. The “fillet steak” was the worst thing I’ve ever been served – SO overcooked and dry. I heard at least three people complaining – pretty impressive in a cabin of just eight lol. Breakfast equally bad. Anaemic sausages, under cooked hash browns and overcooked eggs, that were so bad, they tasted like powdered eggs.

    • NorthernLass says:

      Oh dear, I am doing this journey tomorrow 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

      • Phil G says:

        The crews were amazing both ways, and the food out was fine. I’m baffled by the inconsistency in the food on the way back. The menu was not good.
        My advice, the soup starter was okay. Don’t have the steak under any circumstances. I’d either go for the vegetarian option or one of the light bites as a main, if no pies. It doesn’t depart until 9 pm, so I wasn’t in need of 5 courses, and the crew were more than happy to let you swap and change. They were super lovely, and I felt sorry for them having to serve it. The lemon dessert, which sound lovely and light, was actually really stodgy. Even the cheeseboard was naff, which centred around a a massive block of Parmesan !! Sorry, I really hope it’s better for you than us. Maybe we were just unlucky.

    • ap44 says:

      Just flew out to SFO and had the exact same experience in the Concorde lounge.

      It was nearly unpleasant. 3 of the staff on the breakfast terrace just did not want to be there at all, it felt like a real atmosphere (as in, negative). Two of them fought over who could be bothered to take an additional order from us, each thinking the other should.

      The only guy who didn’t have that vibe was less refined than a Starbucks barista (I mean literally.. Pret would have sent him back for more training).

      The only redeeming quality of the food service was the food, which came in at par.

      • Phil G says:

        I’m so glad I’m not the only one to have noticed this recently.

        We used the Flagship dinning lounge at Miami a few months back and everything was faultless. The Concorde room was so poor in comparison.

        • apbj says:

          You’re not alone. I find the lack of training in CCR staff infuriating. What’s the point of trading on “we bring it to your seat” service when they studiously ignore you trying to get their attention or can’t fulfil even a basic request. Guy opposite us in the dining area yesterday had to request water four times before it arrived. You give up waiting to order and go to the bar and they say “oh someone will be with you shortly, just take a seat” … well, clearly not! Meanwhile there’s “guest services” sitting there flicking through a magazine like they’re waiting to see the dentist.

          • executiveclubber says:

            Guest services couldn’t help me with the most basic of requests. “Here’s a card to contact us online”. Oh great thanks

    • CC says:

      Same for me, only did the return leg in First and food was awful, no amenity kits, no pyjamas, Iberia business was better on outbound. Got 20k avios each after complaining

  • Dev says:

    Tbf… it looks elegant even if the seat/hardware may not be the latest.

    It’s just a shame that the soft product, especially the catering, is on a downward trajectory and if they invested more in the ground service part of the experience as well, they could have a competitive enough F product.

    BA just seems to be a big missed opportunity!

    (Although the share price has rocketed in the last 2 months … so what do I know!)

  • Stuart says:

    Where’s the publicity photo with a tiny young woman to make the seat look much bigger than it actual is (Singapore Airlines is guilty of this trick https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/gb/flying-withus/cabins/business-class/business-class-2/). Airline stock photos never show regular people as the seats becuse the seats will look smaller.

    • Lumma says:

      Haha, that’s like on Come Fly With Me when the budget airline uses midgets to show how roomy the seats are

  • RC says:

    Seat at the investor event today. Impressive seat, but not on first A380 until into 2026 and not 100% until late 2027.

    A shame Calum Laming was describing headforpoints as ‘BA hostile’ and Anti-BA to a fund manager from Canada. In November, he was very rude to some of BA’s most premium customers at City event. His hostility to HFP reflects so poorly on him. Well done HFP!

    • Rob says:

      HfP is like a parent that has to scold its children when they misbehave out of love because they are keen to see them do well and want to keep them on the right track. This should be relatively obvious.

      At the end of the day, the mortgages of four people at HfP are paid by companies who (in the main) are supporting the British Airways ecosystem. If BA does well, we can sell more credit cards. If people decide BA is a lost cause, we won’t.

      The amount of money we generate for BA is substantial, easily £10m+ per year. We pull people in, they suddenly find themselves taking out cards they never knew existed to earn Avios, they buy sale fares they never knew about etc. We sold almost £300k of Avios during the Finnair promo last week as one random example, to people who almost certainly wouldn’t have even heard about the offer.

      Odd how pro-BA stuff we run (for eg encouraging readers not to join the data breach lawsuit) or indeed the stories we choose not to run (every seen a story on here about cabin crew or pilot ‘misbehaviour’ for example?) are conveniently forgotten.

      • Mark says:

        Absolutely. BA often bring a degree of dishonesty to their comms which they seem surprised most customers see through.

        So only two 787s currently grounded by RR engine engines but more draconian service cuts – presume to save money and increase yield.

        Brunch menus sold as some exciting ew customer innovation. Serving waffles and eggs in first class at 13:15 is just no funny when you consider the fares paid.

        Luckily for BA their key market is trans-Atlantic with weak US competition. If BA faced the likes of Emirates, Singapore, JAL trans-Atlantic they would be completely screwed ….

    • apbj says:

      Calum Laming is incredibly rude, and I know this even without meeting him.

      If a customer takes the trouble to write to you twice in two years and you can’t even be bothered to fob them off with a canned response, that’s either gross incompetence or spectacular bad manners. This attitude is visible in everything BA is getting wrong at the moment (and the bits BA is getting right he has nothing to do with…)

    • LittleNick says:

      From the BA site: “Calum began his career in aviation with British Airways’ original low-cost airline” and had further customer experience roles at Vueling, no one why the customer experience is going downhill!

    • LittleNick says:

      You’re spot on re someone that is rude and makes derogatory remarks about a significant group that should be important to BA. If someone wanted my money to invest but they were rude and didn’t deal with criticism professionally I’d tell them where to go.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      Is he thinks HfP is “BA Hostile” then I shudder to think what his thoughts about the comments about BA are on the BA Flyer talk board are!

  • GDC says:

    There’s a little drinks area a la emirates business class with a glass and bottle of water hidden in the compartments. Not sure if chilled or not but it can be seen in some videos from the press event.

  • danimal says:

    The seat looks great but the armrests are alarmingly high and don’t look like they retract?

    • Andrew J says:

      I thought that too. They seem to have gone with the Finnair “your sofa at home is like this” approach.

  • MWR says:

    Sat in the seat today, reclined to flat position with some embarrassment as was being overlooked. Seat is a step change from existing, wide, cosy, and cabin feels luxurious and private. Was a prototype so will only get better, but was very impressed overall. Yes the seat is that wide, with additional space either side. The ottoman is also electronic for fellow a fellow passenger sitting opposite. I was told A380 seats will be on the lower floor. I would definitely see the reason to pay the difference between this and club suite. Lighting can be changed a la Emirates. Felt classy not gloomy.

    Opinions are my own and might not reflect BA’s.

    • Pogonation says:

      A lot of negative comments on here. Personally, I am very impressed with this new product especially given the width and size of bed. I generally choose F over J (where cost allows) because I can’t sleep well in most J seats due to the width and the foot cubbies and I am not bothered by the bells and whistles (car transfers, lounges, fancy food etc). The benefit of BA is you can often pick up F for £3-3.5k rtn. I would rather they keep these fares with this great looking product than offer something super fancy like the EK game changer and hike the prices up!

      I don’t know what the commenters who have been saying this is like a J seat are smoking!

    • meta says:

      Usually prototypes are better than the final product. Once safety is taken into account, things will be removed. First thing, I’d say will go is that red drawer, after that the glass mentioned above.

      • meta says:

        @Pogonation I don’t think you have flown a good F product that is furnished with high quality materials properly maintained. BA do not spend money on maintenance nor on furnishings. Sure if you want to fly cheap, BA is for you. It’s a low-cost airline pretending to be some kind of luxury experience. People obviously fall for it, otherwise they wouldn’t exist. This is absolutely fine as it caters to all budgets, but let’s not pretend that BA experience is anything remotely luxurious be it hard or soft product.

        • Pogonation says:

          @meta Looking at my log, I have done 28 F sectors on CX, 14 on JL, 24 on TG, 12 on LX, 10 on SQ, 10 on LH, 6 on EK, 4 on EY, 4 on NH, 2 on QR, 2 on MH. I think that qualifies as having been on good F products.

          I have loved my experience on all of these but my point is that the most important thing to me by a country mile is having a rectangular shaped bed with the max sqft possible that is comfortable for both lounging and sleeping. After this, everything is a bonus and adds to a nice experience but doesn’t make a major difference to me when going from point A to point B. I am not a fan of the current BA F due to tapering at the feet and not having much real estate. This new XL rectangular seat is a huge step up and brings it in line with a lot of F products in terms of square footage. I didn’t try to claim it was luxurious at any point! I do however think that if this can be had at £3.5k where other airlines are >£6k then it is a no brainer!

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