Air NZ’s new Dreamliner business premier seats to also go in 777 aircraft

Wednesday, 14 May 2025

Stuff Travel journalist Emma Stanford got a look inside Air New Zealand's newly retrofitted Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner before its maiden journey.

Air New Zealand passengers will have more opportunities to try its new business class seats installed in the retrofitted Dreamliners.

The airline revealed its new-look interiors last week, including new business class seats which have additional storage, wireless charging for devices, a 61cm (24-inch) in-flight entertainment screen, middle seats with a sliding screen and continuous recline from seat to bed mode.

Passengers will be able to connect their own Bluetooth headphones to the system and link their phone or device to use as a remote control for the screen.

The new Business Premier cabin on Air New Zealand's retrofitted Boeing 787-9 aircraft will be installed in the 777s.

Those same seats will also be put into six of the airline’s Boeing 777 aircraft, replacing the current herringbone layout, with the first expected to be installed by late 2026.

The airline said it would retain its fleet of 777-300 aircraft until the early 2030s as they are “very efficient, reliable, capable aircraft”. CEO Greg Foran likened them to the 1986 Toyota Corolla “that just keeps on going.”

This herringbone design in the Boeing 777s will be replaced.

“Keeping the 777 has not only given us a bit of an insurance policy about whether Boeing delivers on time, but it also adds some more seats to the network. So it sort of makes sense to do what we've done, which is to hold them a bit longer,“ he said.

Air NZ has had eight aircraft on order from Boeing since 2019, though they are not expected to arrive until the beginning of 2026.

The 777s also now all have Economy Stretch seats in them - a section in economy that gives passengers five inches more legroom, premium headphones and a pillow.

Once Economy Stretch is installed across the airline’s entire wide-body fleet, Foran estimated it would increase revenue by between $15 million to $20 million.