On October 31st, flydubai provided a sneak peek of its new business class seat to be installed on its fleet of Boeing 737s. The airline was somewhat cryptic in its post, failing to provide details regarding seat type and a timeline for installation. Despite this lack of more information, those who know their seats well have been able to identify the airline's new business class product. Let's take a look.
Revealed in an Instagram post, flydubai shared two computer renderings of its new seat. The photos came with the caption: "don't tell anyone... Here's a sneak peek of something new on our Boeing 737 ✈️ If you spot it the next time you flydubai, share a picture 📸 with us here."
The Haeco Eclipse?
According to The Design Air, flydubai's newest business class seat will be the Eclipse, produced by the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company- better known as HAECO. Indeed, when comparing HAECO's promotional visuals of the Eclipse with flydubai's previews, it's a pretty safe bet that the seat type has been identified. Take a look for yourself:
Here's how HAECO describes the Eclipse:
"Eclipse uses fixed privacy shells to create a strong sense of personal space, with individualised arm rests, reading lights and amenities installed in the seat to cater for needs of passengers. Driven by research on neutral body position - 'Zero G', Eclipse features a smooth incline rather than a static recline for added passenger comfort."
HAECO adds that the Eclipse seat employs "angled, offset seating technology" so that seats can be configured to provide additional passenger counts. This staggered seating also includes privacy "and amenities without compromising seat width, pitch or egress."
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Additional details are scarce
Looking at visuals, we can see that flydubai's new business class seat will offer a decent premium short-haul experience. Passengers are treated to a shell seat with generous legroom, a large screen for IFE, as well as a personal reading light.
A nice part of this seat's design, as pointed out by HAECO's promotional blurb, is the fact that the seats are staggered to offer additional privacy. One downside of the airline's business class, as would be common in most single-aisle configurations, is the lack of direct aisle access for window seat passengers. This will require those seated at the window to step over their aisle-seat counterparts to access the lavatory.
Unfortunately, other than the visuals and what we can analyze, not much other information has been offered. Simple Flying reached out to flydubai to confirm if these seats will be installed fleet-wide and what the timeline might be. A spokesperson informed us that this seat will only be available on the airline's 737 MAX 8 jets at this time.
Back in 2019, it was noted that HAECO's launch customer for the Eclipse was described as "an as-yet-unnamed Middle East-based airline." Most, including us at Simple Flying, suspected that it would be Emirates for their new premium economy class. However, those seats turned out to be the Recaro PL3530.
What do you think of these new seats? Are you eager to try them out? Let us know by leaving a comment.