Revealed! The unique Qantas Boeing 767 split first/business cabin

The Flight Detective
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Australia’s Qantas had a very unique solution to the problem of how to put both first class and business class on their Boeing 767-338ER aircraft. Instead of putting first class up front, then business class behind that as is common, they instead ran a partition down the cabin to split it in half, with one class on either side.

On the port side of the wall were 17 business class seats, while the starboard side featured six first class seats. This was the configuration upon the aircraft’s service entry in September 1988. I don’t believe any other airline used this solution and it doesn’t seem to have been around for very long.

Split Cabin Seating Plan

I’ve managed to track down a seating plan from a Qantas product brochure that would have been issued to the travel trade. When this was issued, it’s noted VH-OQA, VH-OQB, VH-OQC and VH-OQD have this configuration.

The good people at the Qantas Heritage Collection furnished a complete LOPA for one of the configurations (Revision M), which you can see below. A LOPA, for the uninitiated, is the Layout of Passenger Accommodations. Eagle eyed viewers might notice there are two first class seat types mentioned, Koito and Weber. A note at the other end (not shown) shows that in Revision L, the Koito seats were replaced by Weber. For those wondering, the business class seats are Rumbold.

What Did It Look Like?

Until now, there seem to have been no images published online. Once again, the Qantas Heritage Collection and its volunteers came to the rescue, checking their image archive and sending these over for your viewing pleasure.

These images are from VH-OGG according to the filenames, which is one of the later deliveries. As far as I can tell, no other airline had a dividing wall down the centre of a Boeing 767 to make a split cabin like this. It’s definitely a novel solution!

Gone By 1999?

The separate first class cabin on the 767 did not last for a particularly long time. Checking a timetable from 1999 shows the configuration had already been changed to all business class up front.

That probably suited the regional flights the aircraft was operating, where there would be far less demand for a separate first class cabin. Of note on the seat map above is the Boeing 747SP on the facing page with the unusual longitudinal galley in the B cabin.

Overall Thoughts

Having a partition wall down the centre of a cabin to divide first class and business class is certainly unusual. Looking at the seats, I imagine this was the only way to fit in six first class seats of that width, as they would have been too wide to go right across the cabin.

The location of the first class toilet right at the front in the middle of the cabin is also something different. I’m curious as to whether any other airline came up with this kind of solution, but then again I doubt many had both a first class and a business class on the Boeing 767.

Did you ever fly in the split cabin in first or business class on the Qantas 767-300ER? Or did you ever see it when walking through during boarding? What was it like? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Jeff Gilbert on Jetphotos via Wikimedia Commons.
Seat map via nufnuf on Australian Frequent Flyer.
LOPA and split cabin images via Qantas Heritage Collection.
1999 Seat map via Pinterest.
Cabin 2004 by Chris Finney on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.

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15 comments
  1. That brings back memories.

    I used to travel on Qantas CNS SIN BKK or HKG regularly in the early 90’s. The equipment was always the B767 and occasionally in the J / F configuration. Seats weren’t sold in F only J. We were free to use those seats but rarely did anyone. Those seats were appealing to passengers up against the wall. Rarely was J full (typically 60 to 70% so there wasn’t much advantage moving to a more confined area. In comparison the J cabin was lighter and relaxing. An alternative route for me was CNS NRT. which was then a B747 service offering J and P. J was upstairs and very comfortable, but I frequently upgraded to the premium cabin up front. Great service.

    1. Nice to hear from someone who has flown in the cabin. Interesting that people would have preferred the J cabin to the F cabin. I can understand why the single seats would be coveted, I think they are on any aircraft, even today. Whenever I fly on a small regional jet with a 1-2 first class (in the USA), the singles are the popular choice.

      Sounds like you had some good flying experience with Qantas there! Thanks a lot for the comment, I enjoyed the read.

  2. > I doubt many had both a first class and a business class on the Boeing 767

    Lots of airlines had both F and business class on the 767, especially the US carriers, who used 767’s extensively on their transatlantic routes, including TWA, United and American. They configured them 2-1-2 with throne seats in the middle (I flew all of them in first class and the throne seats were awesome). I’m not sure if DL flew their 767’s internationally in the days that they had F class.

  3. Great work in digging up these pictures. I just consulted a 1991 timetable and it made reference to the 767-300’s being progressively re-configured to just Business and Economy class from August 1991.

    Given that VH-OGA was the first to be delivered in August 1988 this configuration only lasted three years.

    1. Thanks for that info, I was wondering how long it was around for. That’s quite a short amount of time – no wonder it was difficult to find pictures or the seat map online. Appreciate that!

      1. Haha! Yes, that article I wrote reminded me this existed so I went hunting for info 🙂 Thanks for the comment!

  4. Cool report ! Did fly a QF 767 back in the 90s, back in coach. Can’t recall if the plane had this configuration on my flight, which I believe was a HKG-BKK.

    1. I think they did routes such as to Hong Kong and Singapore, I imagine. I will have to look up a timetable or something. Glad you enjoyed it!

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