FlyDubai has just unveiled a new business class experience, which will be known as “The Business Suite.” This looks pretty awesome!
In this post:
Basics of FlyDubai’s new business class suite
FlyDubai has a new business class suite, which the airline will start to install on aircraft as of the fourth quarter of 2023. Specifically, it’s expected that the first plane will feature these seats by November 2023, and by the first quarter of 2024, six planes will have these cabins. The airline will prioritize putting this product on longer, premium routes.
FlyDubai operates an all-Boeing 737 fleet, and has roughly 140 Boeing 737 MAXs on order, including the 737 MAX 8, 737 MAX 9, and 737 MAX 10.
This new business class suite is designed specifically for narrow body aircraft, and it’s expected that 10 of these seats will be installed on each plane. For the first time ever, FlyDubai will offer direct aisle access and doors at every business class seat.
FlyDubai is the launch customer for this new seat, which is the Safran VUE product, designed specifically for narrow body jets. This new seat will have some cool features, like a 17-inch 4K built-in touchscreen, bluetooth audio, and ambient lighting.
Below you can see the first pictures that FlyDubai has shared of this new product.
My thoughts on FlyDubai’s new business class suite
FlyDubai’s new business class product looks phenomenal, plain and simple. It’s great to see how the airline is evolving, and that narrow body business class products are starting to be as good as wide body business class products.
One exciting thing about the new Safran VUE seat is that the ottoman in this configuration seems to be quite large, which is otherwise an issue in many of these types of business class seats. This looks as good as any reverse herringbone product out there.
Next, I can’t help but point out just how many different business class products FlyDubai has introduced. The carrier’s focus is definitely innovation rather than fleet consistency, which I suppose is a good thing, assuming there aren’t many aircraft swaps, and that customers know what to expect.
Historically FlyDubai’s business class has just consisted of pretty standard recliner seats. This is similar to what you might find in first class within the United States, except with a bit more legroom.
Then in 2017, when FlyDubai took delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX, the airline introduced a new business class, which represented a huge improvement for the airline. The airline started installing fully flat business class seats, in a staggered configuration. The cabin has a total of 10 seats, with two rows being in a 2-2 configuration, and one row being in a 1-1 configuration.
Then in 2021, FlyDubai introduced yet another new business class seat. Interestingly this wasn’t an improvement over the previous staggered configuration, but rather intended to be a replacement for the recliner seats that were previously found on regional flights. I’m intrigued by this product, but haven’t seen it in person yet.
Now we’re seeing the airline introduce yet another new product, meaning FlyDubai will have four different business class products in service.
The last thing I can’t help but mention is how much FlyDubai has innovated with its business class, while Emirates has the same old subpar business class product on its Boeing 777s, with no firm plans to innovate yet. Isn’t it about time that Emirates announce a new business class for planes other than the A380?
Bottom line
FlyDubai has unveiled a new business class suite. This will be the first time that the airline has direct aisle access and doors on its Boeing 737s. Furthermore, FlyDubai is the launch customer for this kind of seat, and I imagine that this is a product we’ll see on many more airlines.
This looks like a phenomenal new business class product. It’s just unusual that FlyDubai will have four different Boeing 737 business class products.
What do you make of FlyDubai’s new business class suite?
This is the most Dubai thing I have ever seen. Relentless hype, no consistency, 90% of every hyped building, attraction, development etc. never gets delivered, or if it does get delivered, the quantity is so low that it is effectively irrelevant. Not knocking Dubai but it gets old after you have seen it for last 10+ years.
That ingress and egress looks mighty tight from the top down view! If the seat is only 20.5" wide, then the opening looks to be only 15".
I'm now pretty confused as basically flydubai has a better hard product than Emirates when this new seat is installed.
I just have one question, this will affect the capacity of passengers on planes? will have the planes the same capacity of seats?
If it's replacing the Thompson Aerospace Vantage seat, then there will be no decrease in number of seats, but if it's replacing their recliners, there should be a decrease.
I think this new seat will definitely go on their Max-9 and/or MAX-10. The MAX-8 might end up with only recliners from HAECO released in 2021
What a cramped seat, ouch. The 737 is simply too narrow of a plane.
Finally something positive about the 737! While I think the 737 airframe should have been retired years ago, at least someone's still trying to do something positive with this clunker. Alas, I do not expect we'll see such seats on a U.S. airline anytime soon.
@lucky on this note, can't recall if this has been discussed or determined yet but what is United planning to replace its domestic 752 fleet with and what kind of lie-flats should we expect there?
I'm curious about FlyDubai route structure. Are there enough long routes (5 or more hours) that an enclosed suite with lie flat seats are that important.
It's not about the length here. They're a hybrid carrier, treat business class as business class (very premium) and economy as economy(still better than LCC and ULCC)
They're just positioning there products better for their premium members, to rival more the likes of Qatar airways.
If you find QSuites claustrophobic, good luck flying this lolzies
This looks like the only airline seat in the world that is not straight across, which would be very uncomfortable. No doubt this "cutout" was made to squish the seats closer together and still allow you to get to the seat without climbing over it, but having a longer seat under one of my legs than the other sounds bad.
My reaction as well. Based on the renderings, I'd be very nervous about the comfort level in upright or reclined position with the corner of the seat cushion clipped like that. Could be very awkward.
I wonder why this seat model isn't more popular on narrow bodies. While reverse herringbone seats have been way more popular than herringbone seats on wide body business class for some time, this strangely hasn't been the case on narrow bodies for a while, even after the recent push towards direct aisle access from every seat. For instance, I find it perplexing why JetBlue chose a herringbone seat instead of a reverse herringbone seat for...
I wonder why this seat model isn't more popular on narrow bodies. While reverse herringbone seats have been way more popular than herringbone seats on wide body business class for some time, this strangely hasn't been the case on narrow bodies for a while, even after the recent push towards direct aisle access from every seat. For instance, I find it perplexing why JetBlue chose a herringbone seat instead of a reverse herringbone seat for their transatlantic Mint product. It seems most people, including Ben, strongly prefer reverse herringbone seats over herringbone seats mainly because you face the windows.
I would bet that this is also the product we see installed on the subfleet of 737 MAX 10s United plans to operate premium transcon routes with.
Yeppers.
Looks super compact...
@Cedric - that was my first impression, very small.
Why do you guys who write pieces on airline travel nearly always stick to Business and First-Class passengers? Do you get a kickback from the airlines to tout their way too expensive medthods of transport? How about more articles for the majority of people traveling back in sardine class?
Such things as cheapest tickets, best seats, crudiest food, etc., would all help we economic mortals.
Tell me you have no idea how Ben’s business works, without saying you have no idea how Ben’s business works.
I mean, economy seats are mostly the same worldwide. The differentiation between airlines in biz and first is usually the biggest. I guess a review of economy food would be different between airlines but none of it will be that interesting to the hobbyists who are the most ardent readers of this blog.
Why do people like you post ignorant comments like this without first bothering to understand what the blog is about?
@R.S. Rose:
You should definitely start a blog that covers aspects of flying that these blogs don't cover. I'm sure there is a huge market out there for such content. You might even call your blog One Sardine at a Time.
@GBOAC
That sounds like a blog about fishing boat deckhand's adventures and some fishing boat reviews.
@R. S. Rose
Try TikTok.
@R. S. Rose There are such blogs. Try googling for economy class and beyond or something like that.