Last week China Southern Airlines revealed their new Airbus A350 Business class cabin. The news broke on aviation website Airliner Watch and came with some photos and details. This revelation comes after almost two years of waiting as the airline made its order for 20 A350-900 aircraft in 2017. China Southern is expecting delivery of the first aircraft sometime in the next month.

China Southern has almost returned to its capacity before the coronavirus crisis. Photo: Airbus

Seating by Recaro

Of the few details we have, it is known that the seats of China Southern's Business class will come from Recaro. Recaro is a German company whose sales neared €600 million in 2018, making it one of the three largest aircraft seat manufacturers in the world. In the Recaro press release the company's CEO made this statement:

“We are delighted and proud that the entire cabin of China Southern’s new A350-900 aircraft will be equipped with our seats. This order represents a milestone in our long-term collaboration,” - Dr. Mark Hiller, CEO of Recaro Aircraft Seating.

China Southern is ordering all aircraft seats for its new A350-900 fleet from Recaro Aircraft Seating. Photo: ©RECARO Aircraft Seating

The Recaro press release goes on to say that China Southern's Business class cabin will feature the CL6710. This is the company's "flagship for long-haul applications". The company describes the seat as follows:

"It is intuitive to use, offers generous stowage space and allows direct access to the aisle for every passenger."

Airliner Watch adds that the cabin will feature 28 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. This means that all passengers have direct access to the aisle and a lie flat bed. The photos from Recaro below demonstrate what we can expect to see:

The CL6710 is Recaro Aircraft Seating’s flagship for long-haul applications. Photo: ©RECARO Aircraft Seating
Another photo of Recaro's CL6710. Photo: ©RECARO Aircraft Seating

Other seating in the new A350

As for other seating in China Southern's new A350, the airline says that there will be 24 Premium Economy and 261 Economy Class seats on board. The total capacity, therefore, is 313 seats.

In the premium economy section, passengers will have individually adjustable leg rests for extra comfort while economy class passengers will have seats featuring "six-way adjustable headrest and the integration of state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment systems".

Recaro has been a seating partner with China Southern since 2009.

China Southern handled 140 million passengers in 2018 Photo: Picryl

Entering into service this summer

The cabin news is exciting but we still have a few months to wait before the experience is available to the public, which should by this summer. In February we caught a glimpse of the first China Southern A350 in its final stages of assembly.

While the ultimate goal is to have all China Southern A350s fly long-haul routes, the airline's new aircraft will make its commercial debut on July 1st on domestic flights between Guangzhou and Beijing.

China Southern in other news

China Southern has been making waves in the past year as the airline left the Skyteam Alliance in November. Since then the carrier has not made any additional announcements on intentions to join any other alliances and has been steadily developing their own partnerships with airlines.

More recently, the airline has also been in the news for a new upgrade option for it's economy class. This option goes by the name ‘One Passenger More Seats’ upgrade. It allows passengers to buy up to three economy seats next to them onboard any applicable China Southern flight. These seats belong to the purchaser and the intention is to provide the passenger with more space.

The airline also recently made an announcement that it would operate direct flights between Beijing and London beginning September 2019.