Turkish Airlines’ new Crystal business class may be unveiled in May 2024.
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GLOTurkish Airlines is planning to unveil brand-new business class suite which is a bespoke creation from the newly launched carrier’s Turkish Cabin Interior (TCI) arm.
The seats will crown a new fleet of long-range Airbus A350 jets arriving from 2026, including 15 of the extended-range A350-1000 series which are expected to fly non-stop from Istanbul to Australia.
The new ‘Crystal’ seat design is also likely to be rolled out across Turkish Airlines’ current flagship Boeing 777 fleet, replacing that jet’s dated 2-3-2 layout, with the removal of ‘middle seat’ – something which Emirates is also moving away from.
Turkish Airlines says the new business class seat will provide direct aisle access along with “full privacy” for every passenger.
“We’re going upgrade our 777s with our own business class seats,” airline chairman Ahmet Bolat told Executive Traveller. “(TCI) produces seats for us and also for the world,” with some models available as standard fit-out through the Boeing catalogue, “(and) we are working on certifying one of the seats for business class on the 777… I want to use the full space in the aircraft, but the current seats available in the market” – platforms from the likes of Adient Aerospace, Recaro, Rockwell Collins, Safran, Stella and Thompson Aero – also trim the passenger headcount in the high-yielding cabin.
“That’s the reason we are pushing our own seat,” Bolat says.
“There are not many seat companies in the world, so you are really bound to what they have available,” whereas this bespoke business class creation will be unique to Turkish Airlines.
Turkish Airlines’ new Crystal business class could break cover as soon as May 2024, headlining at the annual Aircraft Interiors Expo show in Hamburg, according to a report on Turkish news site Habertürk.
Praising it as “a beautiful design… that is much more comfortable than” Turkish’s current Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 business class seats, a Habertürk journalist who reports seeing a previous of the Crystal seat says it “offers a much more personalized space, and will not make you feel like you are in a box when fully reclined.”
The report adds that beyond the mandatory lie-flat bed, the seat provides an excellent environment for working or relaxing.
Source: Executive Traveller
