ANA joins the no-recline Business Class set with ‘THE Room FX’ seat

All Nippon Airways is set to significantly enhance its long-haul Boeing 787-9 Business Class experience in 2026, with the introduction of ‘THE Room FX’ – a striking new sofa-style seat that abandons traditional recline mechanisms in favour of a more innovative approach to comfort.

Indeed the Japanese carrier becomes the latest to join the movement away from conventional Business Class seat design, following the pioneering footsteps of Finnair’s AirLounge seat back in 2022.

Unveiled at the Paris Air Show last month in partnership with Safran Seats and British design house Acumen, ‘THE Room FX’ – where FX stands for ‘Future Experience’ – represents an upgrade to harmonise with ANA’s already impressive ‘THE Room’ product, that we first covered when it launched back in 2019.

While that Safran Fusio-based seat has become widely regarded as one of the finest Business Class products in the sky across 10 of ANA’s 13-strong Boeing 777-300ER fleet, this new Boeing 787-9 variant takes a fundamentally different structural approach, while retaining the spatial advantages that made its predecessor so popular.

Ian Dryburgh, CEO of Acumen Design, said:

THE Room FX Business Class seat

‘THE Room FX’ builds upon the 1-2-1 alternating forward-facing / backward-facing staggered layout that has served ANA well with ‘THE Room’, with one major difference.

Rather than the traditional recline mechanism of its 777 sibling, this seat employs a sofa-style approach where the only mechanical movement is the leg rest raising to transition from sitting to a fully flat sleeping surface.

It’s quite an achievement by Safran to have successfully adapted such a spacious staggered seat configuration to the challengingly-narrow Boeing 787 fuselage, which measures just 5.49 metres across at floor level – significantly less than the Airbus A350 (5.61–5.72 metres) and the Boeing 777 (5.86 metres).

The seat maintains all the privacy and space benefits of the wider-body Fusio implementation, while working within the space constraints of Boeing’s mid-sized twin-aisle aircraft.

Between the first and second set of main passenger doors, where other carriers typically fit seven rows of Business Class on the Boeing 787-9, ANA is placing just six rows, giving you an idea of the space available for each passenger.

A further six-rows of Business Class in the second cabin section stretches practically to the mid-point of the cabin in this premium focused configuration.

The seat offers impressive dimensions, with a seat pitch of 51 inches (130cm), a maximum width of 41.5 inches (105cm), and a more practical width at waist level of 27 inches (69cm).

Privacy has been enhanced from the original ‘THE Room’, with suite walls now reaching 52 inches (132cm) in height – an additional four inches compared to the 777.

Aesthetically, ‘THE Room FX’ continues ANA’s established design from ‘THE Room’, but with some subtle refinements that make it look slightly warmer. Nonetheless the result is unmistakably ANA Business Class, very much in keeping with ‘THE Room’.

Closing privacy doors – now de rigueur in modern Business Class cabin designs and finally set to appear on SIA from 2026 – are naturally included in ANA’s latest product. The layout with doors open and closed is shown in the image below.

Another difference regular travellers on ANA’s Boeing 777 ‘THE Room’ product may notice is a layout variation.

On the 777, forward-facing seats occupy aisle-aligned positions while rear-facing seats take window-aligned positions. The 787-9 reverses this arrangement, with rear-facing seats adjacent to the aisle and forward-facing seats at the windows.

Finnair was actually the pioneer

The sofa concept itself isn’t entirely new to the industry.

Collins Aerospace pioneered this approach with their AirLounge seat, which caught the attention of Finnair’s then Head of Customer Experience David Kondo, at an industry conference.

As Kondo explained:

Now ANA and Safran have developed their own interpretation of this concept, bringing the sofa-style design to what promises to be one of the most spacious Business Class seats we’ve seen on a Boeing 787.

How the bed works

The clever design of ‘THE Room FX’ lies in its simplicity, like Finnair’s AirLounge.

Unlike traditional Business Class seats that require complex sliding mechanisms to extend the footwell and recline the backrest, this seat achieves its transformation through a single movement: raising the adjustable legrest.

Of course, with fewer mechanical components, there’s less that can go wrong – reducing maintenance costs. The absence of complex seat motors also means big weight savings, both of which are welcome news for the airline’s bean counters!

The seat also features what ANA describes as a “pre-reclining function” that transforms the backrest into a sofa-like configuration.

Passengers can lounge in various positions – cross-legged, stretched out, or in more traditional seating positions – much like relaxing on a living room sofa.

The curved backrest wall provides a more natural bucket-shaped seating position, potentially improving comfort during the upright phase of flight. Without the need for seat recline, the backrest can be optimally shaped for passenger comfort, rather than constrained by mechanical requirements.

When it’s time to sleep, the leg rest raises to create a continuous flat surface that extends to a maximum length of 76.5 inches (194cm, or 6ft 4in).

Here, ANA addresses one of the most common criticisms of ‘THE Room’ on its Boeing 777-300ERs: the bed length.

In ‘THE Room FX’, at 194cm, it’s around 12cm longer than ‘THE Room’, promising improved sleeping comfort for taller passengers.

Rear-facing seats have bigger beds

The rear-facing, aisle-adjacent seats (C, D, G, and H) offer a larger and more usable seat and sleeping surface than the forward-facing seats (A, E, F, and K).

That’s because the forward-facing seats need to include a gap between the seat and the side console, to provide access space into the suite – a design feature that isn’t needed for the rear-facing aisle seats.

You can see the difference clearly in this overhead shot, with the gap in forward-facing seat highlighted.

While true window-aligned seats are often favoured for maximum privacy away from the aisle, travellers might actually prefer the aisle-aligned version in this design for the larger sleeping surface.

Other seat features

‘THE Room FX’ significantly upgrades technology offerings compared to ANA’s current 787-9 long-haul Business Class configuration.

The centrepiece is a 24-inch 4K HD monitor – 1.4 times larger than the current installation and representing one of the biggest Business Class screens available – with newly introduced Bluetooth audio connectivity allowing passengers to use their own wireless headphones.

The suite also features touchscreen control panels built into the seat’s console for controlling entertainment, lighting, and seat position.

Storage in the suite looks a little limited to us – with the primary option being a compartment beneath a raising section of the flat fabric surface adjacent to the seat, while a smaller cupboard houses the headphones and a water bottle, with a netted storage cubby and a mirror built in to the door itself.

It doesn’t seem like there are a plethora of other options to store your things within easy reach during the flight.

The table extends from beneath the in-flight entertainment screen and unfolds into what appears to be a spacious and sturdy surface for working or dining.

In-seat power options include a wireless charging pad on top of the side console, another feature fast becoming de rigueur in premium cabins, while there is also an AC outlet, USB-C and USB-A sockets at the base of the storage compartment, with a gap beneath for any wires if you wish to charge your devices while the compartment door is closed.

While this will represent ANA’s first installation of both wireless charging and USB-C sockets fleet-wide, frankly these are now a must in new Business Class and First Class seat designs, and therefore not a surprising addition.

Cabin configuration

ANA will configure this refit of its 787-9s with just 206 seats in total, creating one of the most premium-heavy layouts we’ve seen on this aircraft type. The breakdown includes:

• 48 Business Class seats in ‘THE Room FX’
• 21 Premium Economy seats
• 137 Economy seats

This will be the lowest-density configuration of any Boeing 787-9 in commercial service worldwide. Even British Airways’ four-class layout, which includes a small First Class cabin alongside Business, Premium Economy and Economy, has a higher total seat count at 216.

At the other end of the spectrum, ANA also operates the world’s highest-density 787-9 configuration, with 395 seats in a domestic layout – 20 more than even low-cost carrier Scoot manages to squeeze on the same aircraft type!

However, the new layout isn’t a total shift-change for the aircraft going under the knife, with the carrier’s existing long-haul international Boeing 787-9 configuration standing at 48 Business, 21 Premium Economy and 146 Economy seats.

The new Business Class stretches further back into the cabin than before, so it’s Economy Class that takes a nine-seat sacrifice.

Product rollout

ANA plans to begin introducing ‘THE Room FX’ seats in 2026, with a gradual rollout across the carrier’s 16 Boeing 787-9 aircraft currently used on its long-haul international network, a relatively small sub-set of the carrier’s 44-strong fleet of the type.

This marks the first refresh of the airline’s mid-sized aircraft Business Class product in a decade, representing a significant (but some would argue overdue) investment in passenger experience.

The rollout will complement rather than replace ANA’s existing ‘THE Room’ seats on 777-300ER aircraft, giving the carrier two premium long-haul Business Class products that share much design philosophy, while serving different aircraft types and route structures.

Based on current deployment patterns, travellers can eventually expect to find ‘THE Room FX’ on ANA’s routes between Tokyo and Brussels, Frankfurt, Houston, Los Angeles, Milan, Munich, Paris and Vienna, while the larger ‘THE Room’ will likely continue to serve flagship routes like London and New York on the carrier’s Boeing 777-300ERs.

Sadly Singapore appears unlikely to make the cut – apart from possible short‑term deployments or one‑off substitutions – and the carrier’s Japan – Australia flights will likewise miss out, unless the rollout is later extended to additional 787-9 aircraft.

As for the launch route itself – that’s still under wraps, so watch this space for an announcement closer to the time.

ANA award redemptions

Once schedules are confirmed, many of our readers will no doubt be keen to experience ANA’s new ‘no-recline’ Business Class product for themselves.

The most cost-effective way to book ANA award tickets is via the airline’s own Mileage Club programme. However, since Mileage Club is not a transfer partner of any credit cards in Singapore, this option is likely limited to a small group of travellers.

Previously, ANA miles could only be used for round-trip redemptions, but since 24th June 2025, one-way award bookings have also been supported – though pricing still varies by season.

Here’s how it looks, with Business Class rates highlighted.

ANA Mileage Club’s current rates for long-haul award redemptions between Japan and Europe or the USA typically require between 50,000 miles and 90,000 miles one-way, depending on the route and the season.

Full award charts and details of which dates fall into which seasonal period are available here.

Award rates using other Star Alliance and ANA partner programmes to redeem the carrier’s Business Class on these routes are shown in the following table, again with Business Class rates highlighted.

As you can see, sadly the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer programme does not offer good value when it comes to ANA Business Class redemptions, though good-value options some of our readers can consider include EVA Air Infinity MileageLands, Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles (for Europe routes) and Air Canada Aeroplan.

When service begins in 2026, ‘THE Room FX’ will offer ANA passengers an experience that’s both familiar – thanks to the proven Fusio spatial layout found in ‘THE Room’ – and refreshingly different in its approach to comfort and functionality, as the carrier follows Finnair in embracing a sofa-style approach.

In doing so, ANA looks to have created what may be one of the most spacious and thoughtfully designed Business Class products available on a Boeing 787 aircraft, a type that challenges premium seat designers thanks to its narrow fuselage.

A longer bed than ‘THE Room’ at 194cm is likely to win some praise, as is the larger sleeping surface at the aisle-aligned positions, but ultimately the seat’s success will depend on whether ANA’s customers embrace the ‘no recline’ concept over existing seats with traditional recline systems.

In an industry where David Kondo’s Finnair-era observation about the growing similarity of new Business Class seats rings increasingly true, ANA’s decision to combine innovation with the familiarity of its existing product is a bold one – likely to resonate strongly with premium travellers, or just as easily, divide opinion.

(Cover Photo: ANA)