$2b and plenty of new seats: Inside airlines’ battle for first-class supremacy

November 8, 2026 — 2:29pm

With high-paying passengers driving airline profitability, carriers are locked in an escalating race to outshine one another through what they offer in their premium cabins.

Singapore Airlines has revealed the seats to be installed in many of its A350s as part of a long-awaited $S2 billion ($2.26 billion) cabin refit – for first class, business class, premium economy and economy. The new cabins will also be in its upcoming order of 31 Boeing 777-9s.

The complexity and cost of the cabin refit tells a much broader story about the battle to cater to the premium traveller with better seating, cabins, service and food. That battle is playing out against the constraints of the industry as it struggles to keep up with surging demand for seats.

The Singapore Airlines refit was announced in 2024 with expectations the first of 41 A350-900 planes would be ready by this year. Instead, the airline said this year that the first planes would start to be refitted by the first quarter of 2027, the revised timeline reflecting what it said were industry-wide supply chain constraints and a delay in the certification of one of the new seats.

Safety regulators such as the US Federal Aviation Administration certify planes and interiors for flight.

Singapore Airlines senior vice president customer experience Yeoh Phee Teik told a press conference on Friday: “Seats have already been certified on the 777-9. As you know, the 777-9 aircraft itself has not yet passed certification.”

“You have to understand the intricacies of that; the seats on the A350 have not yet been certified. We are undergoing that process right now.”

Which is to say seats for a plane not yet cleared for use are approved, but new seats for a plane already in use (the A350) have not. The company expects them to be approved by 2027.

Singapore Airlines’ Boeing 777-9s are expected by the second half of 2027, said Lee Lik Hsin, chief commercial officer. “We are working hand in hand and working very hard with our partners [the plane and seat makers] to make sure that we achieve those milestones.”

Across the industry, planes are awaiting seats, or indeed awaiting certification. The bottlenecks in the production and certification processes exacerbate each other.

These delays have prompted airlines, constrained in their ability to get new aircraft, to resort to cabin refreshes to stay competitive. Qantas announced one for its 737s in 2025.

This has set off a rush in demand for new premium seating, which has strained both the industry producing it, and the few regulators in the US and Europe who can approve it.

Singapore Airlines’ first-class cabins, for example, move away from the sameness, featuring an undulating shape, breaking rigid lines and creating an aisle that is curved, a rare sight on a jet.

“The curve in the aisle unlocks more space for the passenger,” said designer Ben Rowan, of London-based PriestmanGoode, who is the mastermind behind the layout. “You’re not looking at office cubicles in a straight line. This is a much more curving, welcoming space.”

Poltrona Frau leather upholstery, individual full-flat beds 80 inches in length and 30 inches in width, and adjacent seats that can transform into a two-seater sofa for daytime lounging are all features.

The slightly hexagonal cabins allow passengers sleeping on the “lie-flat” beds to turn and place their feet on the floor, creating a sensation similar to a bedroom.

“When you sleep and you get up at home, what’s the first thing you do?” asked Lee, the chief commercial officer. “You turn to the side, and you sit on your bed. We couldn’t do that before.

“Today we can, because the curved walls provide a little bit of space for you to put your foot down, and maybe collect yourself before you stand up.”

A redesign of a cabin in a style that complements Singapore Airlines’ high service level aims to reinforce its position as a premium airline, one with the fortune of geography to pick up Europe-Asia traffic lost to its rival Gulf airlines when the Iran conflict began in February.

Singapore Airlines flights from Australia to Europe gained 25 per cent more passengers in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the same time last year, with fares surging 109 per cent in that time, according to data from aviation data and analytics company Cirium.

Singapore Airlines’ refit itself was announced after it became clear the premium airline wasn’t going to get the 777-9 it ordered on time.

Made by Collins Aerospace in the US, the first-class seats are the result of a nearly decade-long process. PriestmanGoode began designs in 2018. The long timeframe is partially because of COVID and partially because of cascading disruptions to manufacturing afterwards.

New premium economy seats will have adjustable foot and leg rests, dedicated storage, and a cocktail tray for drinks. Economy seats have a redesigned seat-reclining mechanism with better knee and shin clearance, as well as an adjustable headrest.

For all the soothing subtle colours of first class, and the golds and browns Singapore Airlines has been known for, the airline has chosen a blue-grey colour for its new business seats.

The business seat, designed by BMW Designworks and made by Germany-based Recaro, reclines into a 79-inch-long fully flat bed, replacing the diagonal set-up Singapore business class is known for. The meal tray, which is often one of the most troublesome necessities of a seat, drops from below the seat back, pulls out and extends.

Yet, the complexity of the seat – and its safety requirements – have further tied up and delayed supply chains which have come under intense strain since COVID, a time when demand initially shuddered to a halt, prompting staff exits, and the closure of parts makers.

Part of the bottleneck for cabins is the number of companies qualified to do the seat design and construction. As AeroDynamic Advisory managing director Richard Aboulafia said at a forum held in June: “There aren’t that many seat suppliers, and it’s a rather labour-intensive operation”.

Aboulafia said a kind of groupthink had taken hold in the aviation industry as airlines decided to retrofit their entire fleet.

Part of what makes commercial aviation so safe are the standards built into aircraft manufacturing; everything that goes into a plane must be tested and certified for use. That includes seats.

“So the supply challenges and the certification challenges are magnified immensely by these specific industry dynamics in the seating business,” Aboulafia said. With so many different seats designed and produced in the industry, testing requires time.

To expedite matters, seat-maker Recaro’s factory in Schwabisch Hall, Germany, has its own crash-test facility.

A catapult hurtles a dummy in a seat across a track, while 10 cameras and sensors record the impact. In one violent action, the seat is tested and photographed.

At this facility, a single business-class seat can run up to €100,000 ($162,000) for each test. Specific certifications can require up to 18 separate tests. Costs can run into the millions as new designs are proved safe.

There are other expenses: the materials that go into the seats must be controlled and checked, which means more testing for flammability.

An unassuming factory in High Wycombe, near London, illustrates the scale of the specialist companies.

Sabeti Wain, a family-run company, whose origin story begins when the founders fled the Iranian Revolution for the safe shores of Britain, is now a major producer of leather seat coverings for airlines.

Employees at Sabeti Wain fill a factory floor, cutting, fitting and stitching high-end leather that covers first-class and business seating in planes. Employees hunch over sewing machines, doing detailed, skilled work. (The company also has factories in Dubai and the US).

Part of what makes this work different from standard leather work is the requirement to meticulously check and track every material going into the products.

That level of manufacturing and safety detail underpins the attention to detail in the design, presentation and execution of the new cabins coming to the Singapore Airlines planes, the elements the carrier will rely on to keep inducing customers to pay premium prices to fly on it.

Chris Zappone flew to Singapore as a guest of the airline. Last year, he flew to the US and Europe as a guest of Singapore Airlines.

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Chris Zappone is a senior reporter covering aviation and business. He is former digital foreign editor.Connect via X, Facebook or email.

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