Air Canada will start refitting its Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft with the new Golden Hearted cabins in 2029, adding a Signature Plus Suite in the first row and carrying a premium cabin change across its long-haul fleet years after the product first appeared elsewhere.
Kiyo Weiss confirmed the timeline at a media event marking a decade of Air Canada service to Brisbane, saying the 777 and 787 work would come later and that passengers on those markets would have to wait. It is the kind of update business class travelers notice immediately: the cabin they may have seen promoted on newer aircraft is already in service on some Air Canada jets, but the widebody work is still a few years away.
Air Canada first unveiled the Golden Hearted cabins in April at the 2026 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, and the design leans heavily on natural Canadian finishes, with wood, stone and leather set off by deep red and bronze accents. The passenger experience also includes USB-C and AC outlets, tablet holders, larger overhead bins and Bluetooth 4K OLED screens at every seat, a package aimed squarely at the carrier’s premium long-haul flyers.
The cabin has already entered service on the Airbus A321XLR and a handful of A321ceo jets, which gives the new look an early foothold even as the airline postpones the biggest part of the rollout. That gap matters because Air Canada’s widebody fleet is not small: it includes seven Boeing 777-200LRs, 19 777-300ERs, eight 787-8s, 32 787-9s and 20 Airbus A330-300s, with 14 Boeing 787-10s due between this year and 2030 and eight Airbus A350-1000s expected from 2030.
For now, that means the airline’s existing long-haul routes will keep their current cabins until the retrofit begins, even as the fresh design is already visible on some narrowbody aircraft. The next clear milestone is 2029, when the first 777 and 787 cabins are scheduled to go in, and that is when Air Canada’s most familiar international workhorses should finally catch up with the carrier’s new premium standard.
