A new seat map for Delta's Airbus A350 aircraft has indicated extra-legroom economy is coming back to the aircraft type. The airline previously had not offered Comfort+, the extra-legroom economy class, onboard the Airbus A350s, preferring a new premium economy product instead.
The new Airbus A350 seat map
Delta Air Lines has two Airbus A350 seatmaps on its website. Both have the same aggregate number of seats, at 306 total, but one seat map is superior to the other. First and foremost, both seatmaps have 32 Delta One Suites onboard. This is the airline's fully-enclosed business class lie-flat product. Behind this cabin are 48 Premium Select seats, which is Delta's premium economy product.
The biggest change comes in the back of the plane. The non-Comfort+ fitted jets offer just 226 total main cabin seats. However, the new four-class configuration has 36 extra-legroom economy seats followed by 190 standard economy seats. This brings the total seating configuration on both jets to 306 passengers.
To do this, Delta has taken an inch or so from the seats immediately behind Comfort+. Hopefully this slight loss of space will not be noticeable for the passengers flying coach. Simple Flying reached out to Delta for information on the new configuration, who told us,
Offering all four seat experiences on one aircraft gives our customers greater choice. Our goal is for all remaining widebodies in Delta’s fleet to be fitted with all four seat products in the future.
Why this is good news
Delta Air Lines has fully retired its Boeing 777 fleet. After investing around $100 million into retrofitting the entire fleet with the airline's newest onboard products, it featured a Comfort+ section onboard. However, after retiring the jet, the A350 has become the airline's true flagship, and that jet lacks Comfort+.
Premium Select is a middle ground between coach and business class. Meanwhile, extra-legroom economy is a middle ground between coach and premium economy. This means that passengers have more options to choose from when it comes to the type of travel experience they want.
Elite members can receive complimentary upgrades to Comfort+. Upgrades to Premium Select or Delta One require upgrade certificates. Other, non-Comfort+ A350s thus require elites to burn valuable upgrade certificates if they want to get out of coach.
Those few extra inches of legroom can also come in handy on a long-haul, such as Detroit to Seoul or Los Angeles to Sydney or Delta's newest long-haul addition Cape Town to Atlanta.
Will other Airbus A350s get the configuration?
Back in May, Delta had told Simple Flying that there were no immediate plans to put Comfort+ onboard the Airbus A350s. However, to SFGate in early 2019, Delta stated it had plans to put Comfort+ onboard its Airbus A350s by 2021.
That timeline is likely pushed back. The global crisis led Delta to pause expenditures wherever possible, and a retrofit of the Airbus A350s was likely deemed unnecessary by Delta.
However, it is not implausible to imagine that this configuration can be found on newly-delivered or future delivery Airbus A350s. This is the easiest place where Delta can go ahead and put a Comfort+ section onboard. Down the line, it can go back and add Comfort+ onboard other Airbus A350 aircraft, at which point it will have a standardized Airbus A350 configuration.
Where these aircraft will be deployed first, however, remains to be seen.
Simple Flying reached out to Delta for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
Are you excited for Comfort+ on Delta's Airbus A350-900? Let us know in the comments!