Jiatai Aircraft Equipment (“Jiatai”), an aircraft seating manufacturer based in Hubei, China, has entered into a “cooperation agreement” to supply economy-class seats for the A350 widebody. The agreement, signed at Airshow China, formalises Jiatai’s work to develop a buyer furnished equipment (BFE) economy-class seat optimised for use in the A350 NPS (new production standard) cabin.
The NPS brings many benefits to the A350 cabin, particularly in terms of usable volume. Airbus engineers have sculpted the cabin the sidewalls to carve out a further 4in (10.16cm) of cabin width, which opens up opportunities to make 10-abreast economy seating more comfortable.
Airlines that had previously had to fit 16.5in-wide seats to enable a high-density 3-4-3 cabin configuration in the A350 can now fit more comfortable 17in-wide seats in the broader NPS cabin space. The NPS cabin is also 35in longer, enabled by shifting the cockpit wall forward slightly and moving the rear pressure bulkhead back by one frame.
Airbus has also enabled more flexibility in the economy cabin. Should an operator of the A350 NPS XWB decide to switch from a nine-abreast cabin to a 10-abreast configuration, this will not require lengthy hangar time, as a 3-3-3 seating layout can become 3-4-3 using the same seat rails, tracks and IFE interfaces. Increasing the A350’s seat count does not require changes to the floor attachments, nor the floor panels, as they are already specified with 10-abreast seating in mind, as is the air-conditioning flow capacity.
According to Jiatai, its cooperation with Airbus is aimed at offering new BFE seat options optimised for the enhanced A350 NPS cabin, enabling airlines to choose a cabin configuration with one additional seat per row.
Jiatai has not released details of how it will optimise its seats for the A350 NPS cabin, or the expected date of entry into the A350 BFE catalogue, but it has stated it has plans to “continue to deepen its cooperation” with Airbus on 10-abreast economy-class seats on A350 aircraft.
Jiatai has been a supplier of aviation seats for around 30 years, with in-house capabilities including structures, non-metallic elements, ergonomics, industrial design and electrics, as well as testing research capabilities. The company, which is part of the AVIC Cabin Systems group, is a supplier of seats for the A320 and A330 (primarily its KKY420 economy seat), and has so far delivered more than 100 shipsets of passenger seats to Airbus.
In both 2023 and 2024, Jiatai was given a Premium Supplier rating by Airbus. In June this year Eltra Services Beijing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Airbus, signed an aircraft parts build agreement with Jiatai.
