FARNBOROUGH — Qatar Airways’ reveal of its new Qsuite business class seats was certainly the swankiest and most expensive of the first day of the Farnborough Airshow, and not just because 2024’s show is very quiet indeed. At the Qatar event, invited bigwigs, poohbahs and panjandrums gladhanded inside a bouncer-patrolled cordon as the airline’s new chief executive unveiled the new Qsuite on a large turntable — interacting with a frankly baffling AI flight attendant on a screen, despite a gaggle of real-life flight attendants used as props strewn around the event.
Superlatives in the speech (the usual raising of bars, best in class, and so on), however, were overegging what is a solid and pleasing update to the Qsuite product. In context, though, it is not one that really moves the needle on business class.
In look and feel, the new Qsuite is very much like the old Qsuite, except taller. Image: John Walton
While the look and feel of the new Qsuites is very much similar to the original, like any passenger, our eyes were on the differences between the two generations.
The immediate one is height: the new doors are 4” higher than the old ones, 56” compared with 52”, and visibly so. This is an incredibly private product, and there’s more space compared with the older version — unsurprisingly, given that this is the 777X Qsuite, which will fly on the 777X’s wider cabin.
The next key difference is the way the inflight entertainment screens (Panasonic Avionics’ Astrova, 22” in 4K using OLED) fold away, or rather can be folded away by the crew, since this isn’t intended to be moved by passengers.
For a start, the monitors move in the outboard pairs, meaning that the forward-facing aisle-adjacent seat and the rear-facing window-adjacent seat can look lovingly at each other, dine together, or perhaps play a game of cards. They can also watch a show together, although this will be at 90° to the screen.
The monitor assembly in the outboard seats moves… Image: John Walton
This isn’t quite the honeymoon seat that is once again offered in the centre pair in the middle section, but for couples who like windows this is a decent option.
…allowing passengers facing each other to dine together. It does, however, mean no storage option beside the monitors. Image: John Walton
In the centre, the screens move the same way, ending up against the aisle-side walls, to open up the Qsuite to a foursome in a similar way to the original version.
The central pair is still a very good honeymoon seat product. Image: John Walton
As part of this transformation, it was surprising that the several sections of thick black plastic bezel assembly around the monitor were quite as unrefined as they are. This feels like something that could very usefully go through another couple of design iterations to reduce a certain clunkiness.
The moving monitor assembly is, frankly, clunky. Image: John Walton
Additional storage has been added in the form of two drawers, one of which works like a hotel safe for the passenger’s passport, wallet, and so on, locked from the side control panel. There’s also the now-standard wireless charging, plug sockets, USB-A and -C outlets, etc.
Drawers are really the only storage space within the suite. Image: John Walton
The colour, materials and finish were a surprise. Apart from a pleasing piece of Kydex Lumina thermoplastic (the burgundy piece above the headrest is internally illuminated), the seat felt a little over-reliant on thermoplastics that look and feel like thermoplastics.
The internally lit Kydex Lumina above the headrest areas is impressive, and will be more so under cabin lighting conditions. Image: John Walton
The table with its multicoloured marbling is and feels like thermoplastic, similar to most of the other surfaces. The risk with referring too much to the 2017 Qsuite is that — presuming 777X delivery in 2026 at the earliest — the overall aesthetic may be familiar to passengers for the best part of a decade.
There are a lot of different colours in the suite, but the vast majority of them are thermoplastics — and feel like it. Image: John Walton
Perhaps this will look different in aircraft conditions — and indeed there is a choice of a half-dozen LED colours to semi-customise the lighting within your Qsuite.
An additional control panel next to the seat allows for changing the mood lighting. Image: John Walton
Qatar didn’t announce the manufacturer of the new suite, but your author spotted multiple executives of Adient Aerospace in attendance and Runway Girl Network indeed understands that Adient is making the seats based on Qatar intellectual property, in conjunction with Acumen designers. Adient replaces Collins Aerospace, which manufactures the original Qsuite.
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Featured image credited to John Walton
