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American Airlines has announced B/E Engineering as the new supplier of it's Business Class seat across the 787-900 Dreamliner and Airbus A350 fleet as well as the remaining 777-200 retrofits.
American had been progressively updating the Business Class offering on its Boeing 777-200 fleet from a 2-3-2 configuration to a much-improved 1-2-1 but pulled the pin in September 2015.
On top of complaints that the seats shake, seat supplier Zodiac was so far behind schedule it was delaying the delivery of new aircraft with two of American's 787-800's parked during fit out waiting for seats from the struggling manufacturer.
“Zodiac has not been able to deliver new seats in a timely fashion according to the terms of its contract,” American spokeswoman Laura Nedbal said. “Our business suite supplied by Zodiac is an excellent product with good reviews, but the seats are far behind schedule and continue to cause significant delays to our plans to improve the travel experience for our customers.”
AA pulled out of the Zodiac deal and went on the hunt for a new supplier.
American will fit the B/E Aerospace Super Diamond Business Class Seat to the remaining 777-200's lined up for retrofitting and the Boeing 787-900 Dreamliners scheduled to take to the air later this year.
B/E will also supply the Super Diamond seat to AA's new Airbus A350 fleet as part of a deal to provide seats for Business Class, Premium Economy, and Economy Class cabins. American Airlines will be the first legacy carrier to receive the A350-900 in early 2017 as part of the inheritance it received from US Airways when the airlines merged.
Who Else Is Using The B/E Super Diamond Seat?
The same B/E Super Diamond Seat is found in Qatar Airways Business Class, and Virgin Airways recently unveiled the seat on its wide-body fleet as part of its redesigned cabins with the seats receiving rave reviews from travelers on both airlines.
The reverse herringbone seat has the tray table folding out from under the monitor allowing for a little extra legroom which on long haul flights is a real gift. Even in the full lie-flat position this seat on Qatar has shown itself to have plenty of room although the lack of a privacy screen has been noted by some frequent flyers online.
AA Business Class flyers will only have to wait until the last half of the year to try the seat out when American Airlines start rolling out the new 787-900 Dreamliners. We may even need to put together a separate post comparing the different Business Class seats American has to offer as come the new Dreamliner there will be three different seats offered on AA long haul flights.
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