The next few years are set to see exciting improvements for British Airways customers. From a new business class product to wifi offered across the mainline fleet, passengers have an awful lot to look forward to. One of the new products being rolled out along with the business class will be British Airways' new First Class cabin. While it will take a while for this to become mainstream, and it won't be industry leading, it is still better than nothing, offering an improvement on the current offering.

British Airways First
The current first-class cabin offered by British Airways on the B787. Photo: British Airways

New First Class Product

The new First Class cabin is not expected to be groundbreaking. In contrast to Emirates' new suite, it is expected to be similar in nature to the current offering on British Airway's B787 aircraft. The new first class will be rolled out alongside the new business class product. At the moment, we know that business class will initially be rolled out when the airline's new A350s enter service. While this is scheduled for Summer 2019, the A350s won't come with a first class cabin.

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Instead, passengers will have have to wait for one of two refurbished B777s to enter service by the end of the year. The new business class cabin will be rolled out to the B777 fleet starting next year. By the end of 2019, two of British Airways' B777s will have already have received the upgrade. A recent IAG publication shows that while the initial rollout will be fairly slow, it will accelerate from 2020.

The document also shows that the first class will be between 8 and 14 seats. The four class B777 currently all have 14 first seats, meaning the size of the first cabin will be reduced on some services. While the size of first is being decreased, the size of the Club World, World Traveller Plus, and World Traveller cabins are set to increase. Additionally, from May 2019, all passengers in First will start to notice a difference as a new soft upgrade is delivered. New bedding, food, and amenities will be offered to each customer seated in First Class.

Other Improvements Planned

Along with the improvements to first class, IAG has a number of other improvements planned for the British Airways fleet. One of the closest to completion is the WiFi rollout. In fact, IAG has stated that the wifi rollout across the short haul-fleet will be completed by Q2 2019. In addition, the long-haul fleet rollout will be over 80% complete by the end of 2019.

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From Q1 of 2019, premium economy passengers will also begin seeing changes. IAG states that the catering will be improved in World Traveller Plus. This is in addition to other unspecified changes to the existing soft product.

What would you like to see introduced with British Airways' new first product? Let us know in the comments down below!