Qatar Airways will almost halve the number of business class seats it provides on B777-300ER operated flights linking Doha and leisure-orientated cities in SE Asia.
The routes in question are between the Gulf and the Thai capital of Bangkok and the Philippines capital of Manila. They also include Saigon and Hanoi in Vietnam. It seems that there is insufficient demand on these routes for a 42-seater business class zone.
Right now, as shown on our sister website seatplans.com, Qatar configures each of its 335-seater B777-300ERs with 42 business and 293 economy class seats. But in the near future a small number of these aircraft will be reconfigured with the second business class cabin given over to economy class increasing the total number of seats to 380.
The new configuration will accommodate 24 in business and 356 in economy class.
Fortunately Qatar is staying with the popular nine across layout (3-3-3) in economy. The forward business cabin remains six across (2-2-2).
The changes will take place over the coming months and have yet to be officially announced.
It must be stressed that the cabin changes affect only a few B777-300ER aircraft on a handful of routes. The bulk of Qatar’s B777-300ERs, those which operating its more commercially important services, will retain the two-cabin business class seating as displayed on seatplans.com
- In other news, Qatar Airways will no longer fly non-stop between Stuttgart and Doha. With effect from the summer timetable on March 25, the flight will be routed via Zurich but at the same time will be upgraded from a narrow-body A319 to a wide-body A330. As at present, flights will operate three times a week.
For more information visit qatarairways.com.
Report by Alex McWhirter
