Singapore Airlines spent Friday night emailing its frequent flyers about “the largest double bed in the sky.” Airline marketing rarely lives up to its own adjectives, but this time the numbers back it up.
The airline unveiled the designs on 6 November 2026, part of an investment north of S$2 billion in new seats across First, Business, Premium Economy and Economy. They’ll be rolled out progressively from the second half of 2027 across 41 retrofitted Airbus A350-900 long-haul and ultra-long-range jets, plus the airline’s new Boeing 777-9s.
That 777-9 bit deserves a wry smile. Singapore ordered its first 20 of them in 2017, when deliveries were pencilled in for 2021 or 2022. We’re still waiting.
First class is where the theatre is. It’s a PriestmanGoode design, the London studio’s first job for Singapore Airlines, built by Collins Aerospace. There are four suites on the A350-900ULR and six on the 777-9, laid out 1-2-1 with curved sliding doors.
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Drop the divider between the centre suites and the two seats slide together into a sofa or a double bed measuring 80 by 60 inches. That’s about 203 by 152cm, which is basically a queen.
Solo flyers get a full-flat single bed of 80 by 30 inches, cotton linen, a duvet and a Paradies mattress topper. Each suite also gets a 32-inch 4K screen and Bang & Olufsen noise-cancelling headphones.
Business class is the bigger story for most of us, though. For the first time, Singapore’s business seats come with sliding privacy doors, and the bed is fully flat at 79 inches long and up to 24 inches wide.
Anyone who has wedged themselves diagonally into the current seat at 3am will appreciate that this overhaul kills off the two biggest gripes, the firm diagonal bed and the flip-over seat. Screens grow to 22-inch 4K, with wireless charging and Bluetooth audio thrown in. Select centre pairs also convert into double beds, which should make honeymooners very happy.
It’s a long overdue catch-up. Rivals have been fitting doors for years, and the lack of one was the main knock on Singapore’s current seat in our ranking of the best business class seats in the world.
The rest of the package includes Starlink wi-fi, a new KrisWorld system with more than 2,500 options, over 100 new or refreshed dishes and Christofle serviceware up front. Amenity kits come from SISLEY in First, BYREDO in Business and INK & WATER in Premium Economy, and Business gets sleeper suits for the first time.
On the ground, more than S$130 million is going into SilverKris lounges worldwide, Changi included.
The catch is patience. None of this flies until late 2027 at the earliest, so if you’re booking Sydney to London this summer you’ll still be sleeping on the angle. Given what Cathay is charging for the same trip up front, that might be the least of your worries.
But for an airline that hasn’t touched its long-haul business seat in over a decade, this is the most significant thing it has done in years.
