Malaysia Airlines reveals new A350 and A330neo business class cabins

Last summer, Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Datuk Captain Izham Ismail exclusively revealed to us that the airline would be unveiling new business class seats on its A330neos this year.

Whilst a few renders were previewed for me, I wasn’t able to share them with you all and had to describe what I saw.

With just eight months to go until the first A330neos are expected to enter service (the first route will be to Melbourne), Malaysia Airlines is lifting the lid on what will become its flagship business class product. The new cabins were officially unveiled at the MATTA Fair 2024 in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Malaysia Airlines’ new business class cabin

The seat Malaysia Airlines has chosen is the Collins Aerospace Elevation seat. This is the same model as the British Airways Club Suite, albeit with an entirely different fit and finish in Malaysia Airlines’ colours.

If you have flown BA’s Club Suite then you will know what to expect. This is a doored, all-suite cabin in a window-facing herringbone.

Unlike Malaysia Airlines’ existing staggered layout, all seats have direct aisle access in a 1-2-1 configuration. The existing cabins feature an alternating 1-2-1, 1-2-2 layout.

This is the first time that the Elevation seat is being installed on an A330 or A330neo. The A330 is one of the narrowest fuselages available so it will be interesting to see whether it is noticeably tighter than existing implementations or whether Collins has adapted the angle of the seats to mitigate this.

Whilst the cabin looks fairly generic from afar, with a colour palette of white, navy and (I assume) dark grey, look closer and you will see some traditional Malaysian songket motifs in the seat surrounds. These are just renders so it will be interesting to see how this looks in real life.

Unlike BA, Malaysia Airlines has opted for a personal light in addition to the angled reading light. Some of the tech is also newer, with built-in wireless charging and redesigned storage under the console table.

Other details, including the screen size and charging ports, remain under wraps.

When will the new cabins fly?

The first aircraft type to feature the new Malaysia Airlines business class cabin will be the new A330neo fleet, which will enter service in the third quarter.

These aircraft will feature 28 seats in business class and 269 in economy. The airline has not taken the opportunity to introduce a premium economy cabin, which is often the most popular (and profitable) at other airlines.

Malaysia Airlines has 20 A330neos on order which will replace the existing fleet of previous-generation A330s. The newer aircraft boast more fuel efficient engines and wingtips as well as larger overheard lockers, improved LED lighting and other small tweaks. All together, it reduces CO2 emissions by 14% versus the old A330.

As we previewed back in 2023, Malaysia Airlines will also roll out the new seats to its existing A350 fleet, which it uses for some of its longest flights including London Heathrow. The retrofit program will start in 2026. At the same time, it will remove its ex-First Class cabins (now called ‘Business Suite’). With British Airways restarting flights to Kuala Lumpur this year, Malaysia Airlines will be under pressure to get the new seat onto London flights as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, you can get a taste for the airline’s ‘Malaysian hospitality’ by reading our review of Malaysia Airlines business class here and their Business Suite (soon to be extinct!) here.