Air Canada announces lie-flat seats on smaller planes for the first time in Canada

Airbus A321XLR (Air Canada)

Air Canada has announced lie-flat seats will soon be coming to smaller aircrafts for the first time in Canada.

The Canadian airline has acquired 30 of its first Airbus A321XLR, a single-aisle aircraft that will come with 14 lie-flat seats capable of reclining 180 degrees to a fully horizontal bed. The seats will be in signature class, the airline said in a press release.

These new aircrafts will also be capable of flying longer routes, and will make its debut over the coming years, the announcement says.

“Equipped with a quieter, more comfortable cabin when compared to previous generation aircraft, this game-changing aircraft will shortly be deployed across the Atlantic from Montreal and Toronto, while also becoming a staple on key North American transcontinental markets,” Mark Galardo, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer and president of cargo at Air Canada said.

This announcement follows some other airlines, such as WestJet and Air New Zealand, which have also announced certain changes to their aircraft cabins.

Westjet updates seating plan

Westjet announced in September 2025 its plan to reconfigure plane cabins to fit more seats on 43 Boeing 737 aircrafts.

• READ MORE: WestJet pauses move to install non-reclining seats after blowback
• READ MORE: WestJet goes back on plan to reduce legroom on planes

Part of the reconfiguration was to add an extra row of seats to hold more passengers, and create a tiered economy seating, in which more expensive seats had more legroom.

Many of the economy seats would have a fixed recline design — they could not be tilted back.

But Westjet paused on the implementation of this plan in December and then announced in January that it would remove the extra row of seats.

Bunk beds on Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand also announced this month that they will be adding bunk beds on their new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flights.

READ MORE: Bunk beds for economy passengers take off on Air New Zealand’s new planes

Referred to as an Economy Skynest, the bunk bed areas will include a mattress with bedding, a privacy curtain, lighting, person stowage, USB charging and ventilation.

The bunk beds will be available on some flights between New York and Auckland, with tickets on sale May 18 for flights starting in November 2026.