One of the World’s Best Airlines Just Unveiled Incredible New First- and Business-class Suites—and We Got an Inside Look
Already renowned for its first-class cabins, not to mention sparkling service, Singapore Airlines is engineering a whole new way to fly long-haul.
Credit: Singapore Airlines
Cocooned from the outside world, I closed my suite door and sank into my Poltrona Frau leather chair. At the touch of a button, a motorized table glided toward my first-class throne. I imagined a flight attendant arriving at that very moment, with a glass of Krug Grand Cuvée and caviar.
But there was no jet-engine hum or flute of bubbly. I wasn't even in the sky: I was in a windowless office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
A first-class cabin window seat, with thoughtful lighting and sliding doors for privacy. Credit: Singapore Airlines
In September 2025, I joined a small group of journalists granted behind-the-scenes access to Singapore Airlines' next-generation first- and business-class cabins, more than a year before they would be revealed to the public. Over several days, I dove into the minutiae of developing an airplane seat, from concept to finished product.
My first stop was in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, at North Carolina–based Collins Aerospace, the company manufacturing Singapore's new first-class suites. (To call them "seats" would do these spacious pods something of a disservice.) "The goal is to set an industry benchmark," says Ong Wah Li, vice president of product experience for Singapore Airlines. "We're introducing this on some of the longest flights in the world, so we need to not only get this right but future-proof it, too."
The new suites will soon be added to the brand's fleet of ultra-long-range Airbus A350 jets, which fly the 19-hour nonstop between Singapore and both Newark Liberty International and John F. Kennedy International. They're also scheduled to be the first-class seats for a forthcoming fleet of Boeing 777-9s.
Work on the new first-class began in 2018, and the carrier cycled through roughly 30 design iterations before hiring London firm PriestmanGoode to finalize a winner. One mandate, according to Ong, was integrating "smart cabin controls," including a function that would let passengers save their favorite seat settings for future flights. The airline even conducted "in-home immersions," sending researchers into travelers' homes to watch how they work and rest—information used to inform the final design.
"No matter how good the service or food is, we heard from our customers that comfort is really the most important thing," Ong explains. Seemingly small details—like the angle of a reading light or how a tray table deploys—are major considerations, given that seats are often in service for a decade or more.
In Winston-Salem, I had the chance to put a near-final suite through its paces, pressing every button and listening closely to every click, thud, and whir. (I was particularly enamored with what I'd call a "center suite," which allows two passengers traveling together to combine lie-flat seats into a proper double bed.)
From North Carolina, I flew across the Atlantic to Schwäbisch Hall, a small German city about two hours by road from Frankfurt that's home to a division of the seating specialist Recaro. The company collaborated with BMW Designworks to create Singapore Airlines' new business-class suite, the carrier's first with a sliding privacy door.
The result is perhaps a bit sportier and more youthful than you'd expect from the buttoned-up airline, with yellow accents and metallic highlights. Compared with Singapore's older business class, which maximized end-to-end width, this slightly narrower design instead makes leg and lumbar support key considerations, along with additional storage space close at hand. "We had the widest business-class seat, perhaps too wide," Ong concedes. "With this, giving our customers meaningful space is what's important."
Even so, the biggest thrill of my behind-the-scenes tour was something most passengers try not to think about at all. All new seats—and even minor changes to existing ones—must meet regulatory safety requirements. So Recaro opened its own crash-test facility in 2021, and I got a look at it during my visit. A test mannequin was strapped into a business-class suite, which was then hurtled with astonishing speed down a track. In the blink of an eye, the whole assembly came to a sudden stop—and both the seat and the crash-test dummy emerged seemingly intact. It was a reminder that for all the mod cons, there's also an astonishing level of thoughtfulness put into every seat before a single real passenger settles in.
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