Turkish Airlines may be considering Business class suites on its new planes. Currently, the airline has 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and A350-900 on order. The company will take delivery of the first 787s in 2019 with all deliveries completed by 2024.

Suites With Doors: Yes Please!

The Turkish Airlines Chief Marketing Officer told the Australian Business Traveller that the new planes would feature a new Business class product that is in the design phase. Turkish’s current fleet of 777s and A330/A340 have a 2-2-2 configuration. The new seats will be in a 1-2-1 layout giving every passenger direct aisle access.

Turkish Airlines Mexico
The new 787-9 Dreamliner from Turkish Airways Photo: Boeing

The company is looking at “individual enclosed storage area”- could this be marketing speak for a suite type product? We will have to wait and see. They are also looking at giving business class passengers 44 inches of knee space which is pretty good and on par with anything in the sky now.

With more airlines introducing suites with doors in Business class, Turkish might be tempted to go down that route and let’s hope they do. They already offer a tremendous soft product, that rivals any of the Gulf carriers. Introducing the suite concept would give Qatar Qsuites some serious competition.

What About The Existing Fleet?

If you fly Turkish regularly and where hopping for a retrofit, you will be disappointed. The airline does not plan on retrofitting any of its current fleet with the new seats. Even though the current fleet has decent seats, they are starting to look and feel a little dated. Especially the 2-2-2 configuration that newer products are moving away from. Hopefully, the response towards new seats will motivate Turkish to refresh the current fleet.

Turkish has one of the best Business class products on its short-haul fleet, especially inter Europe. There are none of the silly economy seats in Business class clothing that blight other major European carriers. The regular economy seat with an empty seat in the middle that masquerades as Business class on most airlines is gone. Instead, you get wide leather seats with plenty of pitch in a 2-2 configuration.  If Turkish applies the same attention to detail and drive to the new seats, they could be on to a winner.

Turkish A321neo
Photo: Airbus

A Big Year Ahead

The upcoming year should be a big one for Turkish Airlines; it will be moving to Istanbul’s new airport the Istanbul Grand Airport IGA which is expected to open on October 28, 2018. If you have visited the current Turkish Airlines CIP lounge in Istanbul, you will know it is one of the best Business class lounges in the world. The new airport lounge should be something to behold. Add expansion to some great destinations like Bali into the mix, as well as an excellent short haul business class product, and sprinkle some Turkish suites on top, and it looks like Turkish will be giving the competition some serious food for thought in 2019.