Turkish Airlines aims to begin rolling out its new in-house business-class suites next year, with chair Ahmet Bolat hailing “a new chapter for our long-haul luxury travel”.
Produced by subsidiary TCI Aircraft Interiors – which is also responsible for the some of the economy-class seats in Turkish Airlines aircraft – the Crystal Business Class suites feature 23in seats, privacy doors, direct aisle access and wireless charging, and will be arranged in a 1-2-1 formation.
The carrier is displaying a cluster of four of the suites in its chalet at Farnborough air show this week.
“Our new Crystal Business Class suite… will carry the airline into the future with a new level of comfort and privacy across our extensive global network,” says Bolat.
The new suites will be line-fitted to the Airbus A350s that Turkish is due to receive in late 2026, he states, while they will also be retrofitted to its Boeing 777s. The latter work is likely to begin in 2025, once the suites have cleared the remaining certification hurdles.
He also suggests they will be fitted to future Boeing 787 deliveries, although no timeline was mentioned. Turkish still has nine or so 787-9s due for delivery from an existing order, while it is also working on a fresh order including 75 of type. Bolat said in Farnborough that the cost of the CFM International Leap-1B engines that power the 737 Max proportion of that potential deal is holding up confirmation of the commitments.
Bolat notes that Turkish Airlines made the move to produce its own seats after finding it can take years for external suppliers to respond to customer requirements.
“So we intensified pressures to produce our own seats… by our own seat company,” he says of TCI Aircraft Interiors, which was founded in 2011.
