Singapore Airlines defends its gray-and-yellow business class. Its designer calls it "a suit with a sneaker"

Singapore Airlines is not apologizing for its new business class colors. After three days of online criticism of the seat's mineral gray leather and bright yellow trim, the airline and the BMW-owned studio that designed it both defended the look as a deliberate choice, in comments reported by The Sydney Morning Herald. Designworks CEO Julia de Bono compared it to "a suit with a sneaker." Singapore Airlines said it does not follow a fixed color palette across its cabins. The Sydney Morning Herald, Nov. 9

The airline has not said it will change anything. The seats are due to start flying in the second half of 2027. Singapore Airlines' launch announcement

What Singapore Airlines and its designer said#

Ong Wah Li, the airline's vice president of product experience, told the Herald the seat was meant to offer "a fresh and contemporary take on premium travel." Ong said the airline's "signature warm and classic aesthetic has served us well over the years," but that "we wanted this new product to have its own character." The airline also said it does not keep one fixed color scheme for every cabin.

De Bono, whose firm is part of the BMW Group, went further. She said "the palette was deliberate." She said the warmer look had "served the airline for a long time, and many of the cabins are going warm and more traditional right now." Her studio wanted this business class "to stand on its own." She told journalists the goal was a cabin that felt "high-tech, luxurious, and future-forward," and that mineral grays "are really having this balance and stable feel to them." The Sydney Morning Herald

In other words, the break from the old look was the point. Singapore Airlines' own release says each cabin "has been designed individually." It hired a different design firm for almost every class. Singapore Airlines

The firms and seat makers come from the airline's launch release. The batik detail in first class comes from the airline's technical notes. The colors for business, premium economy and economy are as described by the Herald, which saw the cabins at the launch in Singapore.

Why critics say the colors miss#

The complaint is about brand, not comfort. Critics told the Herald the airline had swapped its familiar deep blues, golds and oranges for a palette that does not look like Singapore Airlines. One Singapore-based marketing executive said it made the airline "look like they are having an identity crisis." Author Kean Wong called the airline "one of the state's key talismans." He said the bright yellow had a "budget streak," a nod to Scoot, the airline group's low-cost carrier. The Sydney Morning Herald

The most-viewed reaction we found on X came from the account @abigbluebird. It said the palette was "a friendly reminder that you're still very much at work." It asked how much of the $2 billion went to "useless consultants," and went on to argue that the airline's premium fares are hard to justify. X shows the post at about 338,000 views and more than 780 likes. One fact check: the airline's figure is more than S$2 billion, in Singapore dollars, and it covers new seats in all four cabins, not business class alone.

View this post on X

Other flyers took the complaint straight to the airline. Replying to Singapore Airlines' own launch post, a user who calls himself a longtime business class flyer described the cabin as a sea of cold gray. He said he is "no longer excited to fly this." His post also says the designer claimed this is what customers asked for. We found no statement from the airline or its designer saying customers asked for gray. The airline does say it shaped the new cabins with research involving more than 5,000 frequent travelers, customers, staff and industry experts.

View this post on X

The case for the gray#

Not everyone thinks this matters. Shukor Yusof, founder of the Singapore consultancy Endau Analytics, told the Herald the reaction had been "mixed." He said the seats "may be rather bland to some, but I suspect it won't hurt the bottom line at all." The Sydney Morning Herald

The aviation news site Runway Girl Network made a practical argument on X. It said the gray works "almost like a blank canvas" for the colored mood lighting that modern jets use for boarding, meals and sleep. Its post includes a version of the airline's rendering with a sunrise lighting effect added by Google's Gemini AI tool. That picture is an illustration, not what the cabin will look like.

View this post on X

The seat itself has drawn far less criticism. Even the Herald report says it "appears slick and functional." The new seat adds sliding doors, a 79-inch flat bed and a footwell that lets you move your feet while you sleep. Selected center seats can also be set up as companion beds. Singapore Airlines' technical notes

Where and when you will see it#

None of the debate changes the schedule. The seats will go on 41 retrofitted Airbus A350-900 long-haul and ultra-long-range jets and on the new Boeing 777-9 fleet, from the second half of 2027. Singapore Airlines

Seat counts, widths and screen sizes are from the airline's technical notes. The airline has not said which routes get the new cabin first.

1. 2026-11-06Singapore Airlines unveils new seats for all four cabins
2. 2026-11-06Critics on X compare the business class trim to budget airlines
3. 2026-11-09The airline and Designworks defend the palette in the Sydney Morning Herald
4. 2027The new seats begin to enter service in the second half of the year

Source: Singapore Airlines, The Sydney Morning Herald

What it means if you are booking#

For now, nothing. No one can book the new seat yet, and the airline's current business class keeps flying until each jet is refitted. If the colors bother you, the airline's answer so far has been to defend them, not to promise changes. If you care more about the bed, the doors and the screen, the hardware has drawn far fewer complaints than the colors.

For a closer look at the backlash and the Scoot comparison, see our earlier story. For how the A350 and 777-9 versions differ, see our seat comparison.

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