The best economy class cabins in 2025: seats, crew and perks
Here are the best economy class cabins in the sky right now, broken down by legroom, width, Wifi, service, food, drink, extras and toilet-to-passenger ratios.
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Everyone dreams of flying business class. But the reality is, most people, most of the time, fly economy.
Not all cattle class is created equal though. So it's a mistake to assume that they're all equally torturous.
See also: 7 reasons I prefer flying economy to business class
There's surprising variety between economy cabins (RyanAir and Scoot are very different from Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways, and even between full-service long-haul airlines there are some interesting differences in everything from legroom to service).
This in mind, here's a guide to the best economy cabins in the sky in 2025, broken down by seat pitch, width, food, drink, cabin crew, Wifi, extras and toilets. Plus, at the end, our verdict on the overall winner.
Seat Pitch (i.e. legroom)
Top performers
Korean Air: 83.82cm to 86cm
ANA (All Nippon Airways): 86cm
Japan Airlines A350-1000: 84 to 86cm
Emirates - 78.74cm to 86.36cm
Most major international airlines give you about 81 to 82cm of pitch in economy. There are some outliers though, which offer more than the average. These include ANA, Japan Airlines, Emirates and Korean Air, all of which have economy class cabins with up to 86cm of leg room.
Korean Air is the best in this category, recently winning the title of World's Best Economy Class in the Airline Ratings rankings for 2025.
“Korean Air has set the benchmark in Economy Class with its spacious seating and exceptional comfort,” said said AirlineRatings CEO Sharon Petersen.
“They offer the most spacious economy seating in the world, and passenger feedback consistently highlights legroom and space as top priorities."
Width of seats
Top performers
Singapore Airlines: 48cm
Cathay Pacific: 44.45cm to 47cm
Qatar Airways: 45.7cm to 47cm
Emirates: 43.18 to 45.72cm
ANA: 41.91 to 47.24
As for width, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways and ANA are the most ample, each offering between 47 and 48cm of wiggle room. Emirates is close behind at 45.72cm.
Food
Top performers
Korean Air has generous meal portions on long haul flights compared to other airlines according to airlineratings.com (and its bibimbap is legendary).
Qatar Airways offers three choices of main meal (and unlimited snacks). It also has generous portion sizes compared to other airlines (Qatar's meals are 300g or more whereas the average airlines are around 240g per meal).
Cathay Pacific caters particularly well to vegetarians.
Other than the observations above, when it comes to food it really comes down to personal preference. If you like British food; fly British Airways, if you're a fan of French food, Air France is a good choice, if you like modern Aussie cuisine, Qantas is the way to go.
Drinks
Top performers
Air France: offers champagne regardless of what class you're in.
Singapore Airlines: has a drinks menu crafted by world leading experts.
Qantas: has a great variety of Aussie wines.
Aeromexico: serves tequila!
Like a tipple while you fly? While all full-service airlines will serve drinks on long haul flights, some put more effort in than others. Etihad, Emirates, Air France, Singapore Airlines, ANA, Japan Airlines and Qantas are the best airlines in terms of drink selection, according to Escape's frequent flyer expert Sabine Leroy.
Cabin crew
According to Skytrax, Singapore Airlines had the best cabin crew in the world in 2024 (ANA and Garuda were ranked second and third). Airline Ratings, meanwhile, rate Virgin Australia highly, with the Aussie airline recently winning Airline Ratings' World's Best Cabin Crew for the seventh year in a row.
Other than those airlines, Middle Eastern carriers like Qatar and Emirates are always reliable (in Skytrax's World's Best Airline Cabin Crew 2024 list, Qatar were ranked 9th, while Emirates came in at no. 12), and Cathay Pacific also usually rates well in terms of cabin crew satisfaction, according to data from the World Airline Awards (and satisfied staff usually translates into a better customer experience).
Wifi
Qatar (on all Boeing 777, 787-9, 787-8, and Airbus A350 and A380 aircraft) and Hawaiian Air (on all their A330 and A321neo aircraft) give passengers free in-flight Wifi. Emirates and Singapore Airlines give it for free to loyalty members (otherwise it's about $15 - $32 depending on the length of the flight). Qantas has said it will start including Wifi in its international fares at the end of this year.
Fast and free wifi is the next big differentiator for airlines. According to Skift, "As available speeds and bandwidth increase, while overall costs go down, more airlines will likely bolster their in-flight connectivity."
"What is deemed an optional extra today, could very soon become a basic expectation among passengers."
See also: What Elon Musk's Starlink means for airlines
Extras
Korean Airlines offers slippers.
Air New Zealand offers the Skynest and the Skycouch.
Swiss Air gives you Swiss chocolate.
Lufthansa offers a "sleeper's row" (a row of three empty economy seats you can book, without armrests, with a thin mattress plus a Business Class-quality blanket and pillow).
Qantas is introducing a new foot-net to make passengers more comfortable on ultra long haul flights as a part of Project Sunrise.
The footnet, Qantas says, "provides additional support and further enhances the ergonomics when travelling on longer flights."
Toilets
If you want the most toilets for the fewest people, Qatar's A380s (1 toilet per 38 passengers), Emirates' B777-300ERs (1 toilet per 38 passengers), Malaysian Airlines' A330-300s (1 toilet per 38 passengers), AirAsia's X A330-300s (1 toilet per 41 passengers), Cathay Pacific's A330-300s (1 toilet per 42 passengers) and Qantas' A380 and 787-9s (1 toilet per 48 passengers) currently have the best ratios in the industry, The Australian reports.
Overall winner: Qatar Airways
Consistently scoring highly in almost every category is Qatar Airways. Despite having been pipped to the post in this year's Best Airline awards due to Korean Air's remarkable amount of legroom, Qatar Airways has won the award many times over the years for good reason. It's currently has the best "all rounder" economy cabin in the sky.
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Originally published as The best economy class cabins in 2025: seats, crew and perks
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