This economy seat is taking social media by storm. It’s not alone

July 6, 2026 — 5:00am

The aviation world pricked up its ears recently when frequent flyer Naya Rajji posted a video showing the seat on her economy-class Emirates flight. On a flight from Dubai to Colombo, the Dubai-based content creator sang the praises of an adjustable winged headrest that gave her a more comfortable flight.

A winged headrest in an economy seat is nothing new. Plenty of aircraft have seats with butterfly wings in the headrest that fold in at the side, and also move up and down to better accommodate passengers of varying heights.

What sets Emirates’ new seats apart is the headrest’s size and shape. Rather than folding in at the side, the headrest folds downwards from the seatback, forming a horseshoe shape that encircles the neck.

According to media reports, the height as well as the angle of headrest can be customised. In effect, it does what neck pillows do, although images posted on social media suggest something more rigid than the soft, foam-filled neck pillows favoured by many economy travellers.

Some commentators have identified the seat as a variation on the popular Safran Z400. French-based Safran, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of airline seats, has previously exhibited the Z400 as an economy seat with a built-in “pillow headrest”, although this is not the same as the one in Rajji’s images. Emirates has installed Z400 economy seats across parts of its fleet, including Airbus A350 and Boeing 777 aircraft.

Innovations that ease the pain of long-haul economy flights

It says a lot about long-haul economy-class flights when something as simple as a more comfortable headrest can cause a flurry of excitement, but some airlines go the extra mile to offer greater comfort to their economy flyers.

Air New Zealand’s Skycouch, now emulated by China Airlines’ Family Couch, United’s Relax Row and ANA’s COUCHii, allows passengers to book a row of three economy seats, with a padded mattress for extra comfort. In December, New Zealand is introducing Economy Skynest, six individual lie-flat bunk beds for economy and premium economy passengers on selected long-haul services between Auckland and New York.

Several airlines offer enhanced economy-class seats that give you anything from 8-12 centimetres of extra legroom and, in some cases, a slightly greater recline angle. There’s added cost, but nothing like the bump-up to premium economy. United Airlines’ Economy Plus, Etihad’s Economy Space, Hawaiian Airlines’ Extra Comfort and Air New Zealand’s Economy Stretch seats are some examples.

A small number of airlines including AirAsia X and Scoot have quiet economy cabins, where children under 10 years – 12 in the case of Scoot – are excluded. Seats in these cabins come at a premium, and they’re popular, but the concept hasn’t been widely adopted.

Japan’s ANA has fixed-back shell seats on some of its aircraft. These recline by sliding the seat base forward rather than tilting the back into the passenger behind, solving one of aviation’s major annoyances. While they’re not unusual in premium economy, the higher seat price and increased maintenance costs of shell-type seats exclude them from all but a tiny number of economy cabins.

Wi-Fi has become more widely available for economy flyers. Once restricted to business class and members of airlines’ frequent flyer programs, premium airlines now often extend Wi-Fi access to all on board. The free usage might be capped, with a user-pays option for unlimited access.

And some that didn’t go so well

Some innovations that were designed for economy passengers never made it off the drawing board, and praise be. Saddle seats were designed to pack more passengers into the available space. Seat pitch was a mere 58 centimetres, 15 centimetres less than the current seat pitch on the very meanest of the low-cost carriers. Tray table? You must be joking.

Double-decked seating to make use of empty overhead space was another concept touted at aerospace shows but good sense and the statutory requirement to fully evacuate an aircraft in 90 seconds in an emergency sent that one limping off to the ideas junkyard.

At the 2018 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Airbus and seat manufacturer Zodiac Aerospace, later to become Safran, announced plans to develop a passenger sleeping module inside the cargo hold of Airbus’ A330 and A350 aircraft. A mock-up showed a central corridor with bunk-bed sleeping compartments and stools suggesting make-up stations, adding a further air of unreality to the concept.

A decade ago, Airbus patented an “aircraft pod concept”, a detachable aircraft cabin. Like a shipping container, the passenger module would separate from the aircraft when it docked and arrive intact at the terminal to disgorge passengers. The pod would re-fill and then drop back into the aircraft, slashing turn-around time.

Which airlines have the best seat pitch in economy on Australia’s international routes?

While economy-class seating has had some innovations, the one that would really make a difference to passengers’ in-flight experience is seat pitch.

This is one area that will never change because cabin real estate is priced by the square centimetre, airlines know that most economy-class flyers are looking for the cheapest deal, and providing more room per passenger would lead to price increases that would make them less competitive. Therefore, standard, sardine-style economy seats are here to stay.

That said, some airlines give you more than others. The standouts among airlines servicing Australia are the Japanese and Korean carriers, with JAL, ANA and Korean Air offering an economy seat pitch of 84-86 centimetres.

Some seats aboard Emirates’ planes also have a seat pitch of 86 centimetres, although others get just 81 centimetres. Economy seat pitch aboard Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific is 81 centimetres, while on Qantas international flights, the current figure is 79-81 centimetres.

If you’re looking for maximum comfort, avoid airlines that squeeze 10 seats across in a Boeing 777 or nine across in a 787. A wide-body aircraft with a 2-4-2 configuration, as featured aboard most JAL Boeing 787s, feels quite different from a 3-3-3 layout, as used by almost all other airlines that use Boeing 787s for their Australia services. However, even JAL operates its Airbus A350s with a 3-3-3 configuration. Choose your flight with care, or shell out for an extra legroom seat.