Azul Linhas Aéreas

1 · POSITION

Azul asked the design studio Tangerine for a new look for its cabins as it opened long-haul flying, and the brief included business class seats for the first time on that route. The studio records an eleven-month timeframe and a requirement that materials retrofitted on the A330-200s be transferable to a new A350 line-fit fleet. The airline’s first front cabin was therefore conceived inside a whole-aircraft identity rather than bought as a seat alone. [1]

2 · THE SEAT JUDGED AT ARM’S LENGTH

Tangerine redesigned the seat’s storage area and worked with the seat manufacturer on further changes. The details it records are close-range: a machined bezel with a multicoloured anodised logo, and an elegant and embossed leather-covered panel. These are surfaces a seated passenger touches rather than features read from the aisle. The studio’s account of the business seat is largely an account of its finish. [1]

3 · A BAR STANDING IN A GALLEY

A walk-up bar, emblazoned by a laser cut Azul logo, was introduced within one of the galleys. The studio presents it as a social space, a place to stand in a cabin otherwise organised around sitting. Cabin patterns take inspiration from Copacabana beach, and the scheme was specified with colour, material and finish specialists so that it would carry across economy, premium economy and business. The national reference is made in pattern rather than in object. [1]

4 · WHAT WAS DELIVERED AND WHAT FOLLOWS

Airbus announced on 13 May 2019 that Azul had received the first A330neo in the Americas, fitted with a three-class cabin accommodating 34 business class, 96 economy Xtra and 168 economy class seats, and equipped with the Airbus Airspace cabin. Recaro Aircraft Seating announced on 10 April 2025 that it would supply the CL6710 business class seat and the CL3710 economy seat for a further Azul A330 programme, with deliveries scheduled to begin that year. The front cabin is being replaced rather than extended. [2, 3]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ Tangerine’s project page carries no year and ties the work to events of 2014 and 2016 without stating when the cabins entered service, so this entry does not date Azul’s first business class. The 34-seat count is Airbus’s figure for one delivered aircraft and must not be read as a fleet standard. Recaro’s announcement names seat models but neither a cabin layout, a bed nor a date in service. No page fetched here describes Azul’s catering or any lounge of its own. [1–3]