A peek into the future of Air Canada Business Class

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | Air Canada is planning its next move in Business Class, building upon today’s high-level Signature Class offering (pictured atop). Already, Air Canada satisfies travellers’ basic expectations of a fully flat bed with direct aisle access on long-haul flights. But the time has come to take that experience to the next level.

Yet when the current Business Class (Signature Class) service meets those usual expectations, how much more can things really be improved? For that matter, what must the airline consider when planning for the evolution of its Business Class offering? To find out, I catch up with Mark Nasr.

Nasr is Air Canada’s Executive Vice President of Marking and Digital. He’s also President of Aeroplan. We’re both in Dubai for the invitation-only IATA AGM, where he hints what high flyers can look forward to.

Air Canada’s current Business Class

Air Canada already has a highly competitive Business Class offering. Having flown it a number of times, I can say that today’s Signature Class suite is one of the most comfortable Business Class beds in the sky today. In fact, we declared as much in a review of the airline’s Boeing 787 experience from Vancouver to Brisbane.

Speaking of today’s product offering, ‘we were the first North American carrier with herringbone (seating), then the first North American carrier with reverse herringbone,’ Nasr says. ‘Actually, we were one of the first carriers in the world with a … reverse herringbone configuration. I think we were three in the whole world.’

‘We’ve long since been a believer in private business class pods,’ he continues. Compared to cabin layouts where you have to step over a seatmate, this kind of seating has ‘more advantages than not’. But the Air Canada Business Class product flying today was developed a fair while ago now – thus the need for the airline to take things to the next level.

‘One of the disadvantages of being first, is obviously, we have a seat that was introduced now 10 years ago in the market on our first 787-8. And that delivery was delayed from what we were expecting. So you can think of it as almost a product we designed 14 years ago, that should have been implemented 12ish years ago, that’s coming on 10ish years, that kind of thing.’

Designing a new Air Canada Business Class cabin

With the need established for the next generation of Air Canada Business Class, what’s going through the minds of the team in planning that evolution? ‘Our view on product is that we look at functionality first,’ Nasr shares. When considering any new features or changes, ‘what actual needs from the customer are we solving?’

On the planning side, ‘we go painstakingly deep into research and trials and testing. The product team that we have is very globally oriented. (They have) experience from designing private jet cabins with Bombardier to working for several airlines, including Asia Pacific airlines (and) working for several seating manufacturers. So it’s a team that really knows their class and trade. I’m very, very proud of them.’

‘When we consider things like wireless charging, when we consider things like doors, when we consider things like second or third IFE screens and the other kind of accoutrements, what we’re asking ourselves is what does this solve? Does it add real customer value to the process? And what are the trade-offs?’

Nasr explains that ‘everything in the cabin is a potential trade-off. More weight, less space for mechanisms, more seats, less seats, storage, et cetera, et cetera.’ The tricky part is finding the balance that works best not just on the aircraft, but on paper, too.

That next-generation premium cabin product

Air Canada plans to debut a brand-new Business Class product on its forthcoming Airbus A321XLR fleet. The XLR is Airbus’ newest long-haul, narrowbody aircraft. It’s so factory fresh that the A321XLR has only just entered service, marking its first-ever commercial passenger flight in November 2024 with Iberia, the launch customer.

Nasr confirms that ‘we’ll introduce brand a new product on the A321XLR, and we’ll introduce a brand.’ Hint: the name of this product may not be Signature Class, as with the airline’s current premium pointy end offering. It ‘will be obviously something special for the XLR. Its design will reflect that it’s a long-haul aircraft for us’, despite being a narrowbody.

But there’s more in store once the XLR is flying. ‘We’ll introduce brand new product of the 787-10,’ Nasr tips. There’ll be new seats in ‘all three cabins: Business, Economy and Premium Economy. And that will become our new standard for the widebodies going forward.’

Air Canada has firm orders in place for 18 Boeing 787-10s, with options for 12 more. As for what’ll be inside, ‘we’re not ready to announce the details yet,’ Nasr says with a smile. But he does share that the new seats won’t just be exclusive to the Boeing 787-10. The airline will also ‘retrofit several of our existing widebodies.’

I ask whether privacy doors might make an appearance in the new design. After all, American Airlines has already confirmed that its A321XLRs will have this in the Flagship cabin. ‘I’d say if doors make sense, we’ll have them. And if we thought they don’t make sense in certain circumstances, we won’t have ’em. We’ll certainly be very happy to explain what we chose to do, and why we chose to do it, at the time.’ Watch this space.

Also read: Why Air Canada’s Aeroplan doesn’t dabble in ‘carrier charges’

Imagery courtesy of Air Canada. Chris Chamberlin attended the IATA AGM in Dubai as a guest of IATA.

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