Singapore Airlines’ new First and Business Class seats: What the teaser videos reveal

Next month, Singapore Airlines will finally unveil its long-awaited next-generation cabin products to the world, along with an upgraded travel experience featuring a redesigned KrisWorld inflight entertainment system, high-speed Starlink connectivity and enhanced ground services.

In the run-up to the launch, the airline has been building anticipation by revealing improvements to its soft product. These include more than 100 new and refreshed dishes across all cabins, new Christofle serviceware in Suites, First and Business Class, and new amenity kits by Sisley and BYREDO. Business Class passengers will also get sleeper suits for the first time, something the airline has long resisted. 

It’s exciting stuff, but what everyone really wants to see are the seats.

So far, Singapore Airlines has decided to tease rather than tell, releasing only a handful of renders. But as the launch date nears, it’s slowly starting to reveal a little more. Accompanying the dining and amenity announcements were a couple of short videos that offer fresh clues about the new seats. 

Let’s see what a frame-by-frame analysis shows!

New Singapore Airlines Travel Experience videos

Here are the two videos that Singapore Airlines has released, showcasing the new dining experience and amenities.

For obvious reasons, the videos focus on tight shots and closeups of the food or amenities, but there are brief glimpses — no doubt deliberate — of the new cabin products too.

First Class

Singapore Airlines’ new First Class seat has already been partially shown in renders, which depict a suite spanning at least three windows (probably four), with electric window blinds.

We can spy an ottoman beneath the oversized inflight entertainment screen, which SIA has confirmed will be used for couple dining. This marks a return of the concept, which has been missing ever since the retirement of the first-generation Suites during the pandemic.

With the launch of SIA’s new First Class cabin products, customers travelling together can enjoy companion dining, with selected seats converted into a shared space where they can dine face-to-face.

-Singapore Airlines

This will be a welcome improvement over the current 2013 First Class seat on the B777-300ER, where couples dine side-by-side rather than face-to-face, and the shell of the seat forces you to lean forward to see your companion. 

Both teaser videos open with a shot of the new First Class seat’s French doors. These remind me of the venetian blinds on the first-generation Suites, which offered privacy — but not complete privacy, lest amorous passengers get ideas.

Even if the rumours are true, and the new First Class does feature full-height walls, it makes sense to have a way for passengers and crew to peep in or out, in case of emergencies. Indeed, Emirates does this with its “gamechanger” First Class seat on the B777-300ER, which has venetian blinds on its otherwise floor-to-ceiling doors.

There’s then a shot of the new First Class sleeper suit being placed on the bed, made up in white linen. In the background, we can see the side console with a generous storage nook beneath it.

The render provides another look at this area, though it doesn’t show the full range of seat controls. 

Another shot shows a flip-up backlit vanity mirror. This is square-shaped, and appears to have storage to the left, and a wall or some other partition on the right.

Compare this with the A380 Suites, which has a rectangular mirror and storage to the left and right.

The final shot shows the men’s and women’s amenity kits placed on top of the champagne-coloured side console, with wood grain panelling in the background.

The backlit seat buttons on the side console move in and out of focus depending on the frame, but here’s what I can make out.

This at least confirms that passengers will have the option to put the seat into bed mode by themselves, unlike the current 2013 First Class seat, which requires crew assistance.

I’m also glad to see proper physical buttons rather than some touchscreen crap that offers no tactile feedback, and blinds you with unwanted blue light when you wake up in the middle of the night and just want to make a minor adjustment. 

As for the other details, back in November 2024, a patent filing leaked onto the internet. This suggests, among other things, that we can expect the middle seats to have a privacy partition that can be pushed sideways into a cavity, allowing for a true double bed experience (no hard middle divider). 

However, it should be noted that this patent almost certainly relates to the First Class seat on the B777-9, which could be different from what makes its way to the A350-900ULRs given the wider fuselage.

Business Class

We already have a pretty decent idea of what Singapore Airlines’ new Business Class seat will look like, thanks to an expanded render that found its way into the 2024/25 annual report.

This shows a suite with an external sliding privacy door, in a 1-2-1 staggered configuration with all forward-facing seats. This will be a relief to passengers who feel disoriented travelling “the wrong way”, with the forward/backward seating arrangements adopted by other products such as ANA’s The Room and Qatar’s Qsuites.

Single seats alternate between being closer to the window and closer to the aisle. Window-aligned seats offer better privacy, as the console forms a barrier between the passenger and the aisle. Aisle-aligned seats are easier to get in and out of, with the loss of some privacy.

For the seats in the middle, however, a staggered configuration offers two options.

The first is an “all divorce” configuration, like what Japan Airlines has on its A350-1000, where all seats are separated from each other by a side console. The second is a mix of “honeymoon” and “divorce” seats, which alternate between being pushed together or separated by the side console. 

I always thought it was far more likely for Singapore Airlines to go for the latter, given the wider range of seating choices it creates, especially the ability to create a double bed for selected middle seats.

The video all but confirms this. In the shot below, you can just about spot the outline of a sliding privacy partition on the right-hand side, which suggests that this lady is seated in one of the honeymoon seats. Another curious detail is the splash of green to the left of her head — it could be a design flourish, but Singapore Airlines doesn’t use green for Business Class so I’m puzzled.

As for the bed, we know that the new Business Class seat will recline directly into a flat bed, with no flipping required. The manual flip-over mechanism will probably go down as one of the strangest innovations in seating history, and it’s telling that no other major carrier bar Air New Zealand and Virgin Atlantic ever adopted it.

While it provides a uniform, seamless flat surface for sleeping, I dislike how it restricts the angles you can sleep at. My preferred angle for sleeping on planes is about 160-170 degrees, which I find puts less strain on the lower back (remember, when cruising the aircraft flies with its nose slightly up).

More importantly, a recline-to-flat design can be adjusted immediately after take-off, without having to wait until the seat belt sign goes off to stand up and flip the seat over. This allows passengers to fall asleep faster, which can be invaluable on those neither-here-nor-there redeye services.

A staggered configuration should already have been enough to know that passengers will sleep parallel to the aisle and not at an angle, as is the case for SIA’s 2013 and 2017 Business Class seats. But if you needed further confirmation, we catch a brief glimpse of the bed in a shot where the new Business Class pyjamas are being placed. You can see the sleeping surface is clearly parallel to the door and hence the aisle.

We also see a closeup of the tray table, which doesn’t reveal much beyond a literature pocket in the background with the safety card visible.

This likely corresponds to where the red arrow is pointing in the render. 

Finally, we have a closeup look at the grey side console, which has a visible “lip” to stop loose items from sliding off. The new BYREDO amenity kit is placed here, which blocks off further details.

That said, the render tells us that the inflight remote and universal power outlet will be found in this area. I would expect to see wireless charging too, perhaps in the space where the BYREDO kit is sitting.

Otherwise, we know that the retrofitted A350-900LH cabin will retain 42 Business Class seats, the same as the current configuration. With the airline also adding five Economy Class seats, and maintaining the same number of Premium Economy Class seats, the new Business Class will certainly be narrower than today’s. Those hoping for a return to the days of the 2006 Business Class seat with its 34-inch width will be disappointed!

For my detailed rundown of the other features we can expect from Singapore Airlines’ new Business Class, do have a read of the post below.

What the teasers tell us about Singapore Airlines all-new Business Class

Premium Economy Class

Premium Economy Class is limited to two shots, both of the centre console between the seats. The console is recessed to keep small items from rolling off, and there’s a cutout beneath it, presumably for water bottle storage.

But the most telling reveal is the manual seat control buttons, which confirm that this Premium Economy seat will not have motorised controls. 

That’s a shame, given that competitors such as Emirates and Japan Airlines are installing these in their new Premium Economy cabins. Airlines are generally reluctant to do this because motorised seat mechanisms add weight, complexity and maintenance costs, but electric controls feel more sophisticated than manual levers, and sell the idea that Premium Economy is a genuinely upgraded product. 

Electric controls also allow for more precise and intuitive adjustments, and are particularly helpful for passengers with limited mobility.

Economy Class

For Economy Class, we see…a tray table. Folded in half. With a ring for a cup. That’s all. The top of the table looks slightly convex, if that means anything.

Other features to expect

Starlink

While it’s not shown in the renders, we know that Singapore Airlines will be adding Starlink inflight Wi-Fi to its fleet, which will offer a quantum leap over the existing GEO system.

However, we’ll need to be patient here. Singapore Airlines plans to install Starlink across the following aircraft types, with the first aircraft refitted in Q1 2027, and the entire project completed by 2029.

The planned installation will cover 53 aircraft, just over a third of the fleet. The decision to commit to only a partial refit might be logical — the omitted aircraft mostly fly medium-haul routes involving transit over countries which have not approved the technology — but the pace will be a bugbear for many. 

Given that Starlink can be installed in just 2-4 days (most of the time is actually spent removing the legacy system), this is a very, very slow rollout. Qatar Airways equipped all its Boeing 777 and Airbus A350 (more than 100 aircraft) in 14 months. United Airlines managed to equip almost 350 aircraft in one year, and expects to upgrade its entire fleet of more than 1,000 aircraft by the end of 2027. Emirates completed its first installation in November 2025, and is targeting to fit all 232 of its aircraft by mid-2027. 

I’ve discussed this in more detail in the post below.

Singapore Airlines’ Starlink rollout: Sensible caution, or unambitious?

Other tech features

It’s pretty much a given that every new seat will offer Bluetooth audio connectivity, 4K inflight entertainment screens and USB-C ports, with First and Business Class passengers also getting wireless charging.

There’s simply no way Singapore Airlines can afford to omit those features in this day and age.

Conclusion

With just a few weeks to go until November’s big reveal, Singapore Airlines has been drip-feeding more aspects of its enhanced travel experience. While the emphasis has been on the soft product, the accompanying videos drop a few hints about what the new seats will look like too.

Of course, there’s only so much you can glean from tight shots and blurry focus, but I like what I’m seeing so far.

Anything else you picked up from the videos?