Air Canada Raises Business Class With 2029 777, 787 Refits
Air Canada will retrofit its business class cabins on Boeing 777 and 787 jets from 2029. The first-row Signature Plus Suite is part of the new Golden Hearted layout, and existing routes using those widebody aircraft will wait for the upgrade.
Kiyo Weiss, senior director of sales for Asia Pacific, said during a media event marking a decade of Air Canada service to Brisbane: "Our 777 and 787 aircraft will be refurbished, but it will not happen until 2029, so the existing markets with those services will have to wait for a little bit". That puts a firm date on when passengers on the carrier’s longest-haul twin-aisle aircraft can expect the new cabin.
Golden Hearted First Rows
The Golden Hearted cabins were announced in April at the 2026 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg. They are set to debut on the new A321XLR and 787-10, and the design uses wood, stone, and leather with deep red and bronze accents. The cabin also adds USB-C and AC outlets, tablet holders, larger overhead bins, and Bluetooth 4K OLED screens at every seat.
Air Canada has already put the Golden Hearted cabins into service on the Airbus A321XLR and on a handful of A321ceo jets. The 2029 retrofit brings that product to older long-haul aircraft instead of only the newest deliveries, which keeps the upgrade tied to the pace of fleet rotation rather than a single launch date.
Seven 777-200LRs And 19 777-300ERs
Air Canada’s widebody fleet currently includes seven Boeing 777-200LRs, 19 777-300ERs, 8 787-8s, 32 787-9s, and 20 Airbus A330-300s. The company also expects 14 Boeing 787-10s between this year and 2030, along with eight Airbus A350-1000s from 2030.
That fleet mix means the 2029 timing reaches a large pool of long-haul seats rather than a single subfleet. If the schedule holds, travelers booking transpacific and other long-range routes on existing 777s and 787s will be dealing with the older cabin layout until the retrofit cycle reaches those aircraft.
2029 Upgrade Sets The Pace
2029 now marks the practical dividing line for Air Canada’s premium long-haul product. The airline has already started rolling out Golden Hearted on new aircraft, but its older 777 and 787 jets will not move in step with that rollout.
For passengers, the useful takeaway is simple: the new Signature Plus Suite is coming, but not across the whole widebody fleet at once. The cabins already flying on newer aircraft give a preview; the rest of the long-haul network will have to wait for the refit program to reach it.
