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Take a look at BA’s new short haul seating in the wild

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British Airways has released some photographs of its new short haul seating on an actual aircraft. To date we’d been restricted to seeing a mock-up in a staged environment.

The first aircraft with the seating, an A321neo registered as G-TNED, is now flying. Eight A320 and A321 aircraft will be delivered in the first wave.

New British Airways short haul seating

Unfortunately there are no plans to retrofit the new seating to existing aircraft.

Whilst arguably the existing seats are not life expired, what is less forgivable is the refusal to retrofit the new larger luggage bins – although a few recent deliveries do have them. The increase in capacity by letting suitcases be stored end-on is substantial.

Here is a long shot down the cabin:

New British Airways short haul seating

Unlike the more recent additions to the fleet which use two different seats, the new aircraft use the same seat throughout the aircraft. There is no swap to a thinner seat beyond the exit row.

However, leg room is still reduced beyond the exit row. You need to be sat in front of this for maximum space, but if Club Europe extends to the maximum then this won’t be possible.

Seats do not recline behind the exit row but all seats are installed with a slight recline built-in.

New British Airways short haul seating

As you can see above, a fixed table is back in Club Europe. This had been removed on more recent aircraft deliveries, ostensibly to save weight, but had clearly proved unpopular.

The antimacassars for your head to rest on do still exist but are not photographed here.

New British Airways short haul seating

Power sockets, USB-A and USB-C, are installed in seat backs (under your seat in Row 1). There are no 3-pin plug sockets.

The USB-C power output is lower at the back of the aircraft (15W) but the 60W USB-C at the front should be good enough to charge a laptop.

There is no wi-fi on the new aircraft. It is not installed by Airbus and the aircraft will need to be retrofitted at a later date.

New British Airways short haul seating

Finally, here is a view of the new larger luggage bins. These allow a wheely case to be stored ‘wheels in’ and on its side, which leads to a substantial increase in capacity. One issue I experienced, having flown recently on an existing delivery which had these bins, is that passengers do not realise that the bins are larger and store their luggage as usual.

Whilst no photographs were supplied, feedback on Flyertalk is that the loos are larger.

All in all, the cabin looks good – it even has mood lighting as the photographs show – and it is a shame that there are no plans for retrofitting.

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Comments (176)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Sam Zia says:
    17 May17 May 04:13

    No wifi. On a brand new plane. Ba is such a joke.

    • LittleNick says:
      17 May17 May 07:52

      You can’t go without slow internet for a couple hours?

    • Rhys says:
      17 May17 May 09:34

      The wifi is typically installed a few weeks later because a different provider does it (not Airbus)

    • Paul says:
      17 May17 May 09:42

      My thoughts exactly. What a farce! Also, why not make all the USB-C ports 60W.. future proof a plane that will be around for years to come.

      • Rhys says:
        17 May17 May 09:48

        Planes don’t have unlimited power and these aircraft have 180+ seats.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        17 May17 May 11:14

        The port itself might be future proofed but BA have chosen to limit it to reserve power across the plane?

      • TimM says:
        17 May17 May 15:21

        The future is ever lower-power devices. My ‘old’ M1 MacBook Air can go 12 hours on its battery. The iPhone can go for two days. Why do people need power on a short-haul flight?

    • James says:
      18 May18 May 15:48

      It will be retrofitted, airbus doesn’t install the WiFi…this is stated in the article.

  • Paul says:
    17 May17 May 04:13

    I don’t get why they don’t do proper business seating like most other airlines o their short hall planes.

    • e14 says:
      17 May17 May 04:47

      Like whom ?

      And it’s so BA can flex the cabin based on demand

      • Paul says:
        17 May17 May 05:02

        You really want a list of all airlines that do 2×2 large business class seats on 737 / 320?

        • John says:
          17 May17 May 05:11

          You made the claim so you provide the evidence

          • Paul says:
            17 May17 May 05:27

            So you don’t believe me… and want to argue of over it? Wow

            Off the top of my head…
            AA
            Qatar
            Virgin aus
            United (I can’t think of any US carrier that don’t)
            Qantas
            Fly Dubai
            Iceland air
            Etihad

            I won’t continue as I have made my point…. Maybe next time I can make a reasonable comment without keyboard warriors like yourself abusing posters.

        • Jonathon says:
          17 May17 May 05:50

          Within Europe though? It’s a low cost mzrkdt( you can’t compare it to Middle Eastern airlines. Flexibility allows BA to actually have fairly decent prices for Club, which still outdo most European business class experiences.

          • Jonathon says:
            17 May17 May 05:51

            *market

          • Paul says:
            17 May17 May 06:08

            Stop moving the goalposts, BA isn’t a low cost airline.

          • Paul says:
            17 May17 May 07:33

            You call £900 one way reasonable for that awful product on a 3 hour flight? I might add Turkish to the list, an airline whose fare are generally higher than BA on the LHR IST route and who never seem to be short of customers

      • Mile Fish says:
        17 May17 May 06:31

        My personal preference is that they just admitted it’s not business class and call it premium economy.

        • Craigy says:
          17 May17 May 11:48

          But then they’d take away lounge access, which nobody would like!

    • AL says:
      17 May17 May 06:23

      US carriers don’t have business class on short/medium haul aircrafts, they have first class, so the comparision doesn’t work.

      Besides that, virtually ALL European carriers have business class that consists of a blocked middle seat. The only exceptions I can think of are Turkish Airlines (even if their A319’s, A320’s and some A321’s also don’t feature a proper business class) and the few intra European flights that are operated by a long haul aicraft (such as some Iberia LHR-MAD flights operated by an A330/350)

      • lumma says:
        17 May17 May 07:47

        Turkish business class is always ridiculously expensive compared to BA on the Istanbul route (£1,000 return Vs £450ish on BA).

        Although it could be argued that Turkish economy is better than Club Europe, especially if you get one of the widebody flights

      • Paul says:
        17 May17 May 08:39

        Americans call it first, and economy they call coach, it’s the same thing, just a different name.

        • Shanghaiguizi says:
          17 May17 May 10:22

          Add Philippines airlines to the list that actually provide real business class in SH. Even their low cost island hopper subsidiary Philippines airlines express have real business. BA is a joke and watching the fan boys do mental gymnastics to try and justify it is pure comedy.

          • Rhys says:
            17 May17 May 11:25

            ‘Real’ business class in regional Asian flights is a lie-flat seat.

            If you expect to see anything like that in Europe good luck. The market has spoken.

          • Chabuddy Geezy says:
            17 May17 May 12:53

            Philippines Airlines has a mix of recliners or blocked middle regular seats on mainline or PAL Express short-haul. When they have blocked middle seats it’s marketed as premium economy.

          • JDB says:
            17 May17 May 13:02

            You sound rather like the people who used to say they would never travel on Concorde because the seats were too cramped. They too didn’t know what they were talking about, but it was a convenient fig leaf for not being able to afford to travel in comfort. The complete inability to understand the difference between the European airline market and the Asian one which explains the business product differences is remarkable.

    • JDB says:
      17 May17 May 07:11

      @Paul – your list confirms the position that BA’s seating is the norm as the question was clearly about European airlines that for a multiplicity of reasons operate in a totally different market to those for example you cite in the USA, Australia, Middle East. For reference, I think you also meant short ‘haul’.

      • Shanghaiguizi says:
        17 May17 May 11:31

        Since the site weirdly won’t allow me to reply to Rhys’ comment above:

        The market may have spoken, but the punters have meekly accepted the race to the bottom and sites like this have normalised it. A few weeks ago the subpar European business was referred to as euro business, instead of simply calling it what it is; a terrible hard product.

        • Rob says:
          17 May17 May 11:40

          Honestly, I like Club Europe. I’m probably doing about 10 sectors over an 8 week period at the moment.

          OK, I’m Gold, which helps. But I get a virtually guaranteed front row seat (even booking close to departure) – and with family, I can bung them all in Row 1 – where the leg room is decent, and I actually find the food good these days. The empty middle seat means no-one is next to me, and often there is no-one at all since the ‘Golds only’ rule never seems to fall away, even in the hours before departure. That’s all I need for 90-120 minutes.

    • Peter K says:
      17 May17 May 07:17

      @Paul. When you compare apples and pears someone is bound to ask questions/challenge the statement. That’s not them being a keyboard warrior.

    • Numpty says:
      17 May17 May 08:11

      Doesn’t seem to be the market in Europe. Over in Asia though, Singapore do a very good short haul business seat (differs with plane type), and CX have a ‘regional’ business class seat.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        17 May17 May 11:18

        BA could always sell the first 5/6 rows with a proper business seat as business and the next 5/6 rows as premium eco or eco comfort or some sort of upsell keeping its flexibility. While not have a substandard product.

        • jjoohhnn says:
          17 May17 May 16:36

          Maybe this complicates things for connecting traffic as they can’t sell it as business class for the whole journey in that way. But I do agree that I would prefer this.

          Presumably in this set up they would call it first, business then eco though, as would be the case in the US.

  • Dubious says:
    17 May17 May 05:30

    Photos look nice. I get the impression from the last image that the bin over row 3 has something blocking part of the space.

    If / when HeadforPoints get to do their own real-world viewing, would you please check how much (real-world) space is available in the bin above Row 1 ?

    Nice to see the dual USB option. It’s as if the seat manufactures have been reading the comments from HfP’s hotel reviews… A shame about the lack of a 3-prong plug though.
    Do most people rely on USB for their laptop’s these days?

    (Genuine question because I have avoided buying a new laptop for several years).

    • WorldTraveller says:
      17 May17 May 05:45

      Yes all laptops charge over usb-c now. It has been this way for the past 5 years at least if not more.

      Even latest MacBooks give you the option to charge over usb-c (the default, faster way, is via a proprietary MagSafe connector but 60w usb-c will charge any MacBook just fine, albeit slow)

      • Jenny Reed says:
        17 May17 May 08:11

        The power cable on my laptop (new last year) plugs into USB C on the laptop but the other end is a normal plug. If I wanted to use that on a plane with no 3 pin socket I’d have to buy another cable.

        • T says:
          17 May17 May 08:49

          Sorry to be blunt but this genuinely seems like a first world problem given cords are widely available on Amazon for a tenner delivered. Also you can just carry one charger which you can use for phone and laptop.

        • HampshireHog says:
          17 May17 May 09:25

          This for Dell is true, I ain’t buying a new cable

          • TGLoyalty says:
            17 May17 May 11:19

            You don’t need new cable you can use any other USB C to USB C you might have been given with a multitude of electronics … anyway the cables £5 and saves you lugging around a plug.

        • jjoohhnn says:
          17 May17 May 09:48

          USB-C is the norm. You will have to catch up at some point as everything is moving that way. iPhone, Kindle, laptops, you name it.. so why not buy a USB-C to USB-C cable now 🙂

          It’s nice to be able to take one wire and one charger and it cover all devices now.

        • WorldTraveller says:
          17 May17 May 10:27

          I probably own 30 or more USB-C cables already. And I only own Apple products (iPhone 15 also switched to lightning so all my Apple products are now usb-c). USB-C cables are so ubiquitous now, I’m curious how you even charge your phone, iPad or Android phone/tablet without a USB-C cable…

          • RussellH says:
            17 May17 May 14:08

            I do not possess a sigle piece of equipment that has a USB-C socket.
            My partner has just 1, none of the other things do.
            And I cannot recall ever seeing a USB-C power output socket anywhere.
            USB-A are reasonably common, but in terms of where I say, certainly not ubiquitous.

        • Colin Thames says:
          17 May17 May 12:49

          If you buy a USB-C to USB-C cable you should be able to charge your laptop in one of those sockets then.

      • Anouj says:
        17 May17 May 11:57

        even magsafe is usb c at the socket end

      • Retron says:
        18 May18 May 05:19

        “Yes all laptops charge over usb-c now.”

        No, they don’t – my 4-year-old laptop has a 330W power “brick” with it, and that plugs into the laptop with a 4-pin chunky connector. Needless to say that doesn’t get plugged in during flight! The CPU alone uses (up to) 80W.

        You can’t get that class of laptop any more (with a desktop CPU inside), but the nearest equivalent still uses a traditional round power connector – and, for the Gigabyte ones I was looking at, still draws 180W.

        60W is fine for business laptops, mind you.

    • Andrew says:
      17 May17 May 10:35

      USB-C vs a normal UK plug is objectively worse, both in terms of compatibility and performance.

      0% of customers will now leave their mains power USB-C plug at home as a benefit of this.

      But how many can no longer charge their existing non-USB-C laptop, have to buy a USB-C to USB-C cable, or are limited to 60W charging of one device vs charging a laptop and iPad/iPhone.

      I’m not against it, it’s a nice enough idea – but it’s a sideways step at best, and certainly not worth the insanity of calling a customer event to show off a slightly different seat colour scheme on a few aircraft.

      Very cringeworthy.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        17 May17 May 11:24

        How were they charging multiple devices on a plane with a single plug?

        USB-A still exists for your phone charging too.

        There’s literally no downside in performance of charging via USB-C vs a plug adapter if you have the right watt output. I also don’t see the compatibility issue in fact it’s more compatible globally when travelling since it’s a single interface and not US, EUR, UK etc standard plug

  • TimM says:
    17 May17 May 05:32

    BA short haul has become an irrelevance to most in the UK. Even if you are prepared to change in London, the timings don’t work both ways. Trains don’t run reliably and cost a fortune and who wants to stay in a hotel near Heathrow for a short haul flight? BA needs to up its game.

    • Andrew. says:
      17 May17 May 11:45

      And yet, on my monthly short-haul flights to EDI, the cabin is full.

      • Mile Fish says:
        17 May17 May 18:21

        Manchester is the same, every flight I’ve been on is rammed.

  • NigelthePensioner says:
    17 May17 May 05:39

    The front half seems fine…… after the emerg exit it seems you are back to the vintage rubbish that fly tourists out of LGW – albeit with a seat that is less than 30 years old. The lighting in this junk is only just post gas I think!!

  • WorldTraveller says:
    17 May17 May 05:43

    Outside of Europe probably more than 50% of all airlines offer proper business class. The fact that BA refuse to do so is appalling. Business class means fully reclining or almost fully reclining 2×2 seat where you recline within your own ‘shell’

    • Paul says:
      17 May17 May 05:47

      Well said

    • Jonathon says:
      17 May17 May 05:53

      Indeed. But BA is European, so not really appalling. Pretty expected by even your own words.

    • Steve says:
      17 May17 May 05:57

      Why would they do it? As you said in Europe there is no competition. They have plenty of customers, lots of people with avios, making profit.

      As a business operating for the benefit of shareholders why would you do more?

      • JDB says:
        17 May17 May 07:19

        @Steve – it’s ridiculous to suggest there is no competition in Europe, which is far more competitive than eg the US air travel market which is why fares in Europe are so incredibly low. Where people refer to airlines outside Europe offering better business class seating that’s sometimes because they are subsidised so don’t need to make a profit or, more commonly because they want the flex to operate the aircraft on much longer routes than the core European ones.

  • Steve says:
    17 May17 May 06:10

    Methinks a few posters should have supped their coffee before posting this morning….

    Where’s the Friday love all!

    • Gordon says:
      17 May17 May 07:14

      This has become the norm I’m afraid. Maybe hfp should invest in some kind of algorithm that detects and removes negative/non productive posts, also other software that detects Grumpiness!!!!

    • Matarredonda says:
      17 May17 May 08:17

      Maybe they have supped too much!

      • Gordon says:
        17 May17 May 09:14

        Maybe a supping, not a coffee, but in the form of the devils liquid! A champagne breakfast might subdue the grouchiness!

    • Numpty says:
      17 May17 May 08:42

      There is a long history of grumpy posts first thing in the morning, always makes me chuckle.

  • Thywillbedone says:
    17 May17 May 06:10

    “antimacassars” – I just learned the word for the thing I’d like removed …they seem really unhygienic to me (although I’m sure someone will tell me otherwise)

    • Richard E says:
      17 May17 May 06:19

      It was my new word of the week too!

    • Daniel says:
      17 May17 May 07:06

      IF they are changed every flight, they are very hygienic, stopping greasy man-hair from sullying the chair.

      If not changed, then yes you are correct, gross.

    • AJA says:
      17 May17 May 08:13

      If you think they are unhygienic then why would you fly on a plane without them as the seat itself would be covered in whatever you think the antimaccassar is covered in?

    • Mark says:
      17 May17 May 08:17

      It must be getting on for a couple of centuries since anyone used macassar oil on their hair anyway!

    • Red Flyer says:
      17 May17 May 08:18

      These days,1 all my flights start with a 90 second wipe around with an anti-bac wet wipe on as many surfaces as possible – the difference in cleanliness across airlines can be startling.

    • HampshireHog says:
      17 May17 May 09:28

      And there was me thinking I’d need my Tuxedo to match the seat

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