Have you seen the gorgeous new British Airways short-haul seats?

British Airways have announced they are installing new short-haul seats on forthcoming A320neo and A321neo deliveries. This is great news for people who travel on the oneworld alliance airline as it should provide more comfort, along with a contemporary look.

The press release also announced members of the Executive Club will get free messaging on Wi-Fi on applications like WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger and Teams Chat (images and videos not included) from 3 April. A new First suite will also debut on the A380 from late 2025 or early 2026.

New Short-Haul Seats

The new seat is the Collins Aerospace Meridian, manufactured in Northern Ireland, featuring Scottish stitched leather. USB-A and USB-C power will be available in the seat backs, with 60w charging in Club Europe and 15w for EuroTraveller. The old three pin sockets are gone.

In very excellent news, the Club Europe middle seat tray table is back, slightly redesigned. This was lost when the A320neo and A321neo aircraft were introduced, so it is a welcome return.

The Current Seats On The BA NEO Are Hideous

I’m quite excited about the new seats, because of the silly choice made in the past around the cabin interior. As I wrote back in 2018, the seats are inconsistent and ugly, as you can see below.

Now I’m not much of a fan of sitting on ironing boards, so these updated seats are a vast improvement. The only thing that has not been mentioned is whether the rest of the fleet will be retrofitted with the new ones.

Video of the new Short-Haul Seats

There is a promotional video showing the new short-haul seats, which shows all the various highlights of the seat. Some of it was shot at the manufacturer as you can see people putting the seat together.

At just 30 seconds long, it’s short and sweet, showing off the patterns, stitching, fittings and the new table. Some great effort has gone into these seats.

Overall Thoughts

I’m delighted to see new short-haul seats being introduced at British Airways. While it seemingly will only appear gradually as new aircraft are delivered, you would have to think the existing A320neo and A321neo aircraft would be retrofitted for consistency. Here’s hoping, anyway!

Since BA are now planning major investments into their product, we should see more good news coming down the line. It’s long overdue, as things had gone backwards to a point where flying other airlines over BA was not only an option, but was happening.

What do you think of the new seats? Good news, bad news or are you indifferent? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Ugly seats by GLABA on FlyerTalk.
All other images via British Airways.