Delta Air Lines appears set to add more business class seats to its A350s in an upcoming layout. With the new design the carrier will increase the Delta One business class cabin to 40 seats from the current 32. And economy class passengers may also see some benefit from the change.
The new layout keeps the same 32 Delta One suites in the front section of the plane while adding two rows of the 1-2-1 layout behind the second set of doors. With that increase, however, comes the loss of a row (2-4-2 layout) in the Premium Select premium economy cabin. The total number of premium seats remains the same, but more of them become flat beds on board.
Further back, the Comfort+ cabin remains four rows with 36 total seats in a 3-3-3 configuration. Because the D1 suites take up more space on board the zone between doors two and three will also see three rows of economy class removed. In total the new design includes 14 rows in the overwing section (2x D1, 5x Premium Select, 4x Comfort+, 3x Economy) compared to 16 (0/6/4/6) in the old layout.
Delta appears to be adjusting the galley layout at the doors aft of the wing, and rearranging the seats as well. Ultimately this will see the capacity drop by 4 seats in the rear-most section, and also loss of the “infinite leg room” not-quite-exit row seats at doors 3L/R and the middle triplet at the rear lav/galley area.
Ultimately, the change will result in an A350 configuration with 31 fewer economy class seats on board, along with the shift of 8 premium economy to business class.
Perhaps telling is that this configuration appears to be launching on the carrier’s routes to South Africa, the longest it operates. While its newer A350s also include an increased maximum takeoff weight to extend the range, the planes are limited in their ability to carry cargo on the route, especially when departing “hot and high” Johannesburg. Delta previously proposed (and was denied permission) operating a triangle route to South Africa, returning from Johannesburg via Cape Town given the performance limitations of its older A350s.
The new cabin layout allows the carrier to sell a more premium mix on the longer flight, plus lightens the overall load on board. That means additional cargo capacity to the USA on good days and fewer blocked seats or other weight restrictions on the bad days.
Delta has 16 A350-900s on order from Airbus with deliveries expected over the next several years. The carrier also operates some A350s it acquired from LATAM with the legacy interiors of that carrier rather than Delta’s signature interior layout.
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RICHARD HUGHES WARD says
Haven’t flown Delta for 35 years. Buy planes cheap you treat your customers the same way. We go out the way to avoid Airbus and Delta. Capetown on a 747-400 or 800 is our routing.
Seth Miller says
Strange flex to argue that the Airbus planes are cheap, but you do you.
Also, there are no 747s scheduled at CPT for the year ahead (though Lufthansa can get you to JNB), so I guess you’ll be skipping it as a destination??
James says
Interesting that only two lavatories for business class and PS will have to use lavatories way back in Economy. Only 7 bs 8.