Qatar Airways has confirmed that all future deliveries of B777 aircraft will be configured ten-abreast in economy.
The Gulf carrier will retrofit its fleet of 28 B777-300 aircraft so that they too will have a 3-4-3 seating layout in economy.
However, economy on its nine B777-200 aircraft will remain nine-across in a 3-3-3 configuration.
Earlier this month, Qatar Airways' newest B777-300ER quietly appeared on the Doha-London route with ten-across seating in economy (see news, August 4).
The airline is installing Recaro 3710 slimline seating, which made its debut with KLM last year (see news, November 2014), on the aircraft.
Qatar Airways said in a statement said: "Due to ever-increasing passenger demand across a range of Qatar Airways routes coupled with new developments in slimline seating, Qatar Airways will feature ten seats abreast in economy on all its new B777 aircraft.
"The current Qatar Airways fleet of nine Boeing 777-200 aircraft, with a capacity of 259 seats, 42 in business class and 217 in economy class, will remain in a 3-3-3 configuration cross in its economy section, with a 32-inch seat pitch and 18.2-inch seat width.
"All future Boeing 777-300 aircraft deliveries will maintain an economy class seat pitch of 32 inches, with a width of 17 inches in a 3-4-3 configuration.
"And, as part of the retrofitting and updating of our existing Boeing 777-300 fleet, the current 28 B777-300 aircraft will also mirror this updated configuration when retrofitted by the end of 2016."
Qatar Airways is also introducing a "high-density" two-class A340-600 (see news, May 8).
Graham Smith
