ernestnywang

For those who read Chinese, the Chinese name of Aria, 爾雅, reminds me of The Cabin, whose Chinese name was 爾雅堂. I know, in reality, 爾雅 is just a loose transliteration of Aria, but the new divider to be installed in each Aria seat reminds me of the small and cozy The Cabin. I wonder if there is more stories behind the Chinese name.

By the way, when did CX start using the term "商務艙" (Taiwan standard)? I thought in the past, CX always used "商務客位." Looking at the Chinese website, "商務客艙" is used these days.

vivere

None of those you mention. The only one I know of is AF at the moment. AA will use Adient Ascent in their new cabins.

https://thedesignair.net/2023/08/07/...-future-fleet/

I guess these seats are heavily customized, therefore we have a hard time identify it. My bet is as mentioned the Safran Versa or maybe a custom Collins Aerospace Elements.

djsflynn

Adient’s Ascent is also used by QR in its later 787s (QR was in fact the launch customer) and has also been chosen by Hawaiian Airlines for its forthcoming 787s.

coolfish1103

It still says 躍升商務客艙體驗，給你寧靜尊貴的空中之旅。in the description, so it's not just 重新設計的波音777-300ER型號客機商務艙 ── 爾雅商務艙 Aria Suite

I mean the Taiwanese have had their own names in the past and now. It's not always something 艙... I don't think it really mattered as it's just a name, but would you rather them use 公務艙 instead lol...

CI
華夏艙 Dynasty
商務艙 Business
超級商務艙 Super Business
豪華商務艙 Premium Business

超級經濟艙 Super Economy (for the Virgin Clubhouse vibe birds that were temporarily leased)
豪華經濟艙 Premium Economy

長榮客艙 Evergreen Deluxe
豪華經濟艙 Premium Economy
菁英艙 Elite

BR
商務艙 Business
超級商務艙 Super Business (also Super First on the 744 upper deck)
桂冠艙 Premium Laurel
皇璽桂冠艙 Royal Laurel

JX
商務艙 Business
and first row with doors being branded as 頭等艙 First...

I think the new seats just speak disasters in comparison to the old seats. It will be new, but likely cramped for more seats. Maybe they may even take out First on some of the birds and put these in.

SLGO

The new seats look a bit tight, all the way from head to toe. And appears that each seat would have less than 2 windows. Suspect seat density is also increased.

Can’t say at this point it’s an improvement to the current (comparatively) spacious yet private J seats. Can’t agreed more with the above views on the existing seats.

sxc

Aria because you’ll be singing out for more space?

ernestnywang

I guess I would just prefer CX to be more consistent with their Chinese translation.

percysmith

If AF Safran Versa 77W measurements are applicable to CX, the measurements should be comparable to current product

AF puts 7 seats along window side of 77W first section, similar to the CX 77G (AF has two more seats in the middle but that may be galley config?)

https://www.aerolopa.com/af-77w-48j

TalkingPoint

We all know what that means for CX.

sxc

The Design Air is stating it is the JPA Airtek seat
https://thedesignair.net/2023/08/07/...-future-fleet/

Not sure if this is in service or has been selected by any other airlines yet.

oldchinahand

I believe that this may be based on the JPA seat but as with the current business seat Cathay look from the brief glance that we have been shown made a number of changes and many enhancements of the original .
I am not however absolutely sure that this is/was in fact JPA Airtek seat.

djsflynn

As far as I know the AirTek (a joint project of JPA Design & Williams Advanced Engineering) has not yet hit the market, so if The Design Air is correct, this would make Cathay the launch customer for the seat.

Now, Jonny at The Design Air has very good connections in the seat/design space and I doubt he'd be taking a random guess on Aria = AirTek; however at this stage, worth noting that JPA hasn't issued any release or comment at this stage, and there's nothing in the TDA article attributing 'Aria=AirTek' to CX or JPA, only this line:

I emailed my JPA media contact last night as soon as Aria broke cover but they've remained shtum so far.

Looking at the enhanced image of the Aria seat from the CX teaser video I did also wonder if this could be AirTek – although one of the tell-tales would be the gap beneath the seat, where a cabin bag can be stowed due to AirTek's carbon-fibre composite monocoque structure (the same approach was taken with JPA's 'Diamond' monocoque seat for SQ's current A380 business class, where JPA first utilised this formed approached) – and this under-seat area was so dark and undefined in the image so as to make it impossible to call.

So while I did have and still do have AirTek on my list of possibilities, I'm not ready to make a call without confirmation (or even 'background' from JPA or CX).

lsquare

So does this mean the current 777s' life will be extended rather than retired with the new business class seats?

sxc

I also don’t think it’s customary for seat manufacturers to provide statements about their airline customers. Mostly to that the airline can shroud the seat in mystery and claim it’s unique to the airline rather than a commodity.

djsflynn

In my experience it's actually more common than not for the manufacturer and/or designer to issue their own media release at some stage, but only with approval of the airline and at a time that suits them.

This can be when the seat is officially announced/launched, or sometimes (annoyingly for media) the day after the airline announces. Sometimes the designer/manufacturer will simply have their quotes included in the airline's press release rather than issue their own, it really all comes down to the airline and also can depend on the significance of the product.

These days, and again this is in my experience, relatively few airlines will feverishly protect the name of the manufacturer, seat designer or the seat model/platform.

In some instances this is not mentioned in the airline's media release simply because it's deemed not relevant to 99.9999% of the market - you don't want to clutter your media release with stuff that doesn't matter, stuff that gets in the way, stuff that competes with more important things - but if a journo asks the product manager or exec they will readily mention the manufacturer and seat model (a recent example of this is Qantas' A350 business class, nothing in the press material identified it as being the Safran Unity but when I asked about the seat's origin QF readily named it as such).