ANA's New "The Room FX" Reinvents Boeing 787 Business Class

All Nippon Airways is bringing its acclaimed suite concept to a mid-size jet, trading a few economy seats for a business cabin built like a private room in the sky.

A Sofa That Turns Into a Bed, Not a Seat That Reclines

ANA's new Room FX suite skips the traditional recline mechanism entirely. Instead of tilting backward, the seat slides forward and down into bed mode, an approach the airline says preserves more usable floor space and keeps the seat feeling like furniture rather than hardware. In upright mode it reads more like a private sofa than a standard business class perch, with a pre-reclined backrest and a manually adjustable leg rest.

The suites are arranged in a 1-2-1 layout across 12 rows, with alternating forward-facing and rear-facing pairs, each enclosed by its own sliding door. ANA developed the concept with Safran Seats and Acumen, the same design partnership behind its widely praised Room suite on the 777-300ER. Safran Seats leadership described the new product as a meaningful step forward in comfort and versatility for the 787-9 specifically.

Trading Nine Economy Seats for Room to Stretch Out

Building a genuinely spacious suite on a mid-size widebody means giving something up, and ANA is doing it in the back of the plane. The reconfigured 787-9 will carry 206 total seats, down from 215 on the current layout, with the difference coming entirely out of economy. In exchange, the business cabin grows to 48 suites, each with a bed stretching 76.5 inches long and up to 41.5 inches wide at its broadest point, figures the airline is billing among the largest in its cabin class on an aircraft this size.

It is a bet that premium travelers on long-haul international routes will reward the extra privacy and personal space even if it means marginally less capacity overall. Every suite gets a 24-inch high-definition monitor, noticeably larger than the screens on ANA's current 787 business class, along with Bluetooth audio pairing, wireless charging, USB-C and USB-A ports, and standard AC power.

Following the Playbook That Made The Room a Standout

The Room FX is a direct descendant of The Room, the suite ANA introduced on its 777-300ER fleet back in 2019 and which helped the airline hold onto its Skytrax five-star rating for more than a decade. Adapting that living-room-inspired design to the narrower 787 fuselage required rethinking proportions rather than simply shrinking the original, which is how the sofa-style, no-recline mechanism came about.

ANA executive Tomoji Ishii framed the project in ambitious terms, saying the goal was not simply to improve the flight but to "transform it." The first Room FX-equipped 787-9 arrives as a new delivery in August 2026, with two more joining by the end of the year. A separate retrofit program covering 16 existing international 787-9s is planned to begin in 2027, extending the suite across a larger share of ANA's long-haul network over time.

Why It Matters Beyond One Airline's Fleet

The Room FX lands in the middle of a broader race among premium carriers to make business class feel less like an upgraded seat and more like a self-contained space, complete with doors, oversized screens, and bedding designed for actual sleep rather than just recline. Mid-size widebodies like the 787-9 have historically lagged behind flagship jumbo jets in suite-level amenities, so a full-privacy product on this airframe raises the bar for what travelers can expect on routes that do not always warrant an A380 or 777.

For travelers weighing which premium cabin to book next, ANA's move is a reminder that the best business class experience is increasingly determined by aircraft type and seat generation as much as by the airline's name on the tail. Worth checking before locking in that long-haul itinerary.

What Sets The Room FX Apart

A rundown of the design choices that separate ANA's newest suite from a typical business class seat.

1. No-recline mechanism: The seat slides into bed mode rather than tilting backward, preserving more usable space in upright mode.
2. Sliding privacy door: Every suite is fully enclosed, a feature still missing from many mid-size widebody business cabins.
3. 24-inch monitor: A larger high-definition screen than ANA's current 787 business class offers, paired with Bluetooth audio.
4. Alternating forward/rear-facing layout: The 1-2-1 arrangement across 12 rows varies orientation row to row to maximize privacy and space.
5. Wireless and wired charging: USB-C, USB-A, AC power, and wireless charging are built into every suite.
6. Fewer overall seats: Capacity drops from 215 to 206 as nine economy seats give way to a larger business cabin.
7. Safran Seats and Acumen design: The same partnership behind ANA's acclaimed 777-300ER Room suite adapted the concept for the 787.
8. Phased fleet rollout: New deliveries arrive first in 2026, with a retrofit of 16 existing 787-9s planned to begin in 2027.

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