The airline industry is constantly evolving with new products and services to stay competitive. In late 2016, Delta Air Lines introduced a new business class product called, Delta One Suite. The seat features a sliding door for privacy along with large HD inflight entertainment screen, mood lighting, and several other improvements.

This innovative product was initially rolled out on the new deliveries of A350s and then expanded to the existing Boeing 777. Delta did announce that the 767-400 will get a refresh in 2019 but never explicitly mentioned which seat product would be used. The 767-400 is the youngest variant of the airlines’ 767 model and speculation was it would also receive the Delta One Suite.

Delta has officially revealed that its 767-400s will instead receive a non-suite Delta One seats instead. The seat will have similar aesthetics to the Delta One Suite but will not feature a closing door. The 767-400 is approximately 16.5 feet wide as compared to around 19.6 feet on the Airbus A350 and Boeing 777. This narrower fuselage does make fitting the same product in the 767-400 unfeasible given the current tight aisles of aircraft featuring the Delta One Suite.

Two major improvements of the midlife retrofit are greater seat privacy, especially for passengers sitting in the middle section as well as a more comfortable lie-flat seat with some storage. Currently, Delta 767-400’s cabin layout features 40 Delta One seats which will be reduced to 34. The seats will be narrowed going from 21 inches in width to 20 inches but will retain the staggered positioning.

Delta Air Lines operates the Boeing 767-400 on numerous transatlantic routes and its current product is lackluster at best. This improved business class cabin should allow it to remain competitive on key routes. The first aircraft to receive the retrofit will be flying from New York (JFK) and Boston (BOS) to London (LHR) in November 2019.

In addition to an overhaul of the business class cabin of the 767-400, Delta will also be adding their Premium Select cabin. Overhaul this is another improvement by Delta to provide a competitive product in the premium cabin and update existing aircraft with modern essentials.