New British Airways Business Class seat

The new British Airways Business Class seat has unveiled. For the UK carrier's new so-called Club Suite cabins on the A350, the seat is a radical departure, with sliding doors, in a herringbone 1-2-1 layout.

We've got out first glimpse of British Airways highly-anticipated new business class seat, and with it a new name for the Business Class cabin, dubbed 'Club Suite'.

It is a radical departure from the existing Club World seat fitted to all long haul aircraft: gone are the sitting backwards, non-aisle access seats which were so radical when they launched several decades ago.

The seat is a heavily modified Collins Aerospace Super Diamond design, and offers a 46 inch high door for privacy - something the carriers' First Class cabins currently lack.

The seat becomes a 79-inch bed, with an erect seat pitch of 44 inches, and are now in a 1-2-1 configuration, with a herringbone formation. Centre seats have a dividing screen.

There is latest BA Panasonic X3 IFE system, with 17 inch High Definition TV screens (or a large 18.5 inch when finally fitted to the Boeing 777s) with the ability to watch inflight entertainment from gate-to-gate, and USB power ports plus a 110v mains power socket which fits UK and most international plugs.

The new seats have 40 per cent more storage, including a vanity unit contains a mirror, and fits small items such as a passport. Another storage bin pops open has the entertainment handheld remote, power socket and USB outlet. And there is a water bottle storage area.

However, to fit all the new seats into the cabin and retain a flat bed, the bottom of the seat fits into a small cubby hole, and there is very limited knee clearance, above an ottoman which is used for storage of the pillow and duvet for take-off and landing.

The ottoman and arm rests use leather from a company called Muirhead . Meanwhile, UK firm Hainsworth created seat fabrics in grey and charcoal.

It will be fitted to the new A350-1000 Business Class cabin, which will be called Club Suites with 56 seats. There with be another 56 seats in Premium Economy, called World Traveller Plus, and 219 in economy, called World Traveller.

World Traveller Plus will get some new perks, including a new pillow and duvet and new amenity kit.

The new British Airways A350-1000 aircraft will have wifi throughout.

However, the new seat will only be available on four of the A350-1000 which are delivered this year, as well as two retro-fitted B777-200s.

The A350 will operate on a few short-haul crew familiarisation flights to Madrid in July through to September, before being scheduled onto selected services to Toronto and Dubai from October.

By 2020 the new seat will start to be retro-fitted to other Boeing 777s, but not the Boeing 747s which are due to retire.