China Southern to launch Thompson’s new VantageXL+ seat

China Southern Airlines is to launch Thompson Aero Seating’s new VantageXL+ product, a seat iteration optimised specifically for the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 widebodies. The Chinese carrier is taking the Thompson seat for its new fleet of A350s, which are expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2026. The new seat builds on the company’s existing VantageXL business class product. “The XL product has been a long-standing successful product for Thompson.” says Andy Jacobs, senior industrial designer at Thomson Aero Seating. ”This is the first time we have launched a product that specifically caters for the 787 and A350. It gives a wider footwell, it’s about half an inch wider on the seat, we’ve resculpted some of the geometry leading into the footwell and sculpted a wave on the top. There’s a lot of subtle geometry changes, even though it looks like quite a similar seat. We’ve just tried to make use of that extra space on the aircraft,” he adds. ”There have been tweaks in the past to try and adapt this to the platform, but never a ground-up [design].”<br/>