Cathay brings new 777 Aria Suites business class to London

The upgraded business class suites spread their wings onto one of Cathay’s longest routes.

By David Flynn, January 24 2025
Cathay brings new 777 Aria Suites business class to London

Cathay Pacific’s all-new Aria Suites business class is now flying between Hong Kong and London, with the promise of more routes to follow.

Premium passengers making their way to or from London can sample the Aria Suites on one of Cathay’s two Boeing 777 routes as CX250/CX255.

Executive Traveller understands there’ll be four Aria Suites 777 flights per week in the short term, although the airline’s aim is to build this up to a daily service as more 777s emerge from their make-over – a process which will hit its stride at a rate of one plane per month. 

The Aria Suites 777s will be crowned by 45 private business class suites, followed by 48 also-new premium economy recliners and 268 standard economy seats.

Cathay Pacific's new Aria Suites 777 business class.
Cathay Pacific's new Aria Suites 777 business class.

Since launching in October 2024, Cathay has been running its Aria Suites 777s on shorter regional hops around Asia such as Beijing, Taipei, Tokyo, and Singapore.

The inevitable shift to London – a premium route of 12-14 hours – will subject the new business class suites to a wider range of real-world scenarios.

Passengers on these long-haul flights will bring a sharp focus on the Aria Suites’ sleeping experience.

Cathay Pacific's new Aria Suites 777 business class.
Cathay Pacific's new Aria Suites 777 business class.

One aspect which could suffer by comparison to the previous 777 business class will be the amount of space – or perhaps lack of space – in the footwell at the end of the bed.

However, they’ll likely welcome the sliding privacy doors and no doubt applaud the long-overdue middle seat divider, thoughtful LED suite lighting, massive 24” widescreen TV with Bluetooth audio streaming, and an upgraded inflight system which shows not only where the lavs are located but which ones are available.

Cathay Pacific's new Aria Suites 777 business class.
Cathay Pacific's new Aria Suites 777 business class.

Read more: 10 things you’ll love about Cathay’s Aria Suites business class 

Sydney is earmarked as another likely candidate for the Aria Suites, especially since the Sydney-Hong Kong route requires just one aircraft.

The flights to watch will be the daily CX100/CX101, as this is Cathay’s sole Sydney 777 service, with all flights featuring an Airbus A350 with previous-gen (but still excellent) business class berths.

Also read: 2025 brings big changes to Cathay’s Hong Kong lounges

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

06 Oct 2016

Total posts 179

Loses first class on a route where it is often full (and the only competition is a relatively poor BA product)

Joe
Joe

03 May 2013

Total posts 685

Nice product with nice colours but it's still a loud, jet lag inducing and drying ancient 777. CX and other airlines should leave premium products for the A350 fleet.

17 Nov 2023

Total posts 57

Couldn't agree more.  Having been a longhaul flight attendant on a range of Airbus / Boeing aircraft, I would say any cabin improvement put into a 777 or even a 787 is a waste of money.

Upgrade to A350/A380 and it's money well spent.

Cathay Pacific - Asia Miles

08 Jan 2018

Total posts 4

@Notso Swift, one of five daily flight loose out of First class, the rich and famous + redemption people can live with that. 

@Et, pairing of CX101 is with CX100, not CX110😄

Mc
Mc

BA

31 Mar 2014

Total posts 25

From my perspective, the whole point of purchasing a business class seat on a 12-14 hour flight is the ability to get 6-7 hours sleep, a cramped footwell doesn't help.

16 Oct 2012

Total posts 54

Goes without saying that production delays and poor forward planning are driving carriers like CX to upgrade aged metal like the 777-300 in lieu of replacement. Personally, I avoid routes operated by 777s - or select alternate carriers if possible. It’s simply a terribly noisy and unpleasant aircraft - the sort of thing you don’t want to spend any extended time in… with or without an Aria seat. 


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