Qantas To Offer Economy Plus Seating For A Fee
New paid seating category to roll out in 2026
Qantas will segment its Economy cabin from next year, with the integration of Economy Plus seating. The new cabin product will launch across Qantas’ domestic and short-haul international network from February 2026.
Qantas Economy Plus is a paid add-on designed to make flying in Economy slightly more comfortable. Included in the fee is up to 40% more legroom, as well as priority boarding and priority access to overhead baggage space.
If all this sounds familiar, it’s basically the same offering as Virgin Australia’s Economy X, which has been around since 2017. But Economy X also offers Priority Check-in, and rumour has it Virgin will be adding a meal voucher to their Economy add-on seating.
Economy Plus will be available on flights operated by the Airbus A321XLR, Airbus A220 and Boeing 737. These planes can be found on the majority of Qantas’ domestic routes, plus selected short-haul international flights, like those across the ditch to New Zealand or to the Pacific Islands.
Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson believes Economy Plus will be popular with corporate and leisure travellers.
“We’re always looking for ways to enhance the onboard experience and maximise comfort for our customers…This is an evolution of our Economy offering and delivers more choice for our customers while recognising our most loyal frequent flyers.”
What Is Qantas Economy Plus?
For now, we don’t know how much Qantas will charge to select an Economy Plus seat, although this will likely depend on the length of each flight, rather than a flat fee network-wide.
Platinum and above Qantas Frequent Flyer members will be able to select an Economy Plus seat free of charge when booking. Gold members can select Economy Plus for free 24-hours before departure, when check-in opens.
Economy Plus will occupy a simply enormous portion of each cabin, with some aircraft having more than 30% of the available Economy seats designated as Economy Plus. That’s an interesting strategy, particularly as rival Virgin Australia recently scaled back its Economy X seating.
But it seems Qantas believes a huge portion of its travellers are willing to pay for more comfort on shorter flights. For frequent flyers who can select Economy Plus without paying extra, the decision to install such a large number of extra-legroom seats represents a clear win.
Number of Economy Plus seats per Qantas aircraft:
- Boeing 737: 48 seats
- Airbus A321XLR: 36 seats
- Airbus A220: 20 seats
The headline benefit of Economy Plus is naturally the added legroom. Standard Economy seats sit at around 30 inches of pitch, but Economy Plus pushes that to 34” across all aircraft types. Exit rows step that up to 38”, and the Boeing 737s front row offers an enormous 52”. For context, Business Class on the 737 offers 37” - meaning some Economy Plus seats will actually provide more legroom than Qantas Business Class.
Which Qantas Planes Have Economy Plus?
The launch of the new Economy Plus product comes as the Red Roo progresses with its lengthy fleet renewal program. This includes the purchase of 48 new A321XLR aircraft, of which the first two began domestic flying in September, with a third set to arrive before the end of the year.
While new A321XLR and A220 aircraft will come delivered with extra-legroom seating already fitted, for the existing Boeing 737, Qantas will begin reconfiguting jets to include Economy Plus from December 2025. That’s ahead of its full 737 cabin refresh program beginning later.
The complete refresh will see 42 Qantas 737’s receive brand-new Business and Economy seats, while some of the remaining 33 aircraft will receive minor TLC, including new seat covers and cushions.
Qantas says it’s first completely refreshed 737 will return to service in 2027, with all 42 fully refurbished jets expected to be flying by 2030. That likely indicates that older jets will receive Economy Plus first, before exiting the fleet earlier than those that receive a full glow-up.
According to Planespotters.net, Qantas is currently operating Boeing 737 jets aged between 11 and 23 years of age.
