Airline to unveil seating revamp

[cosi]

Todays West Australian

Air New Zealand will unveil on Tuesday the most dramatic and innovative revamp of economy seating since the advent of the 747 in 1970.
The West Australian can reveal that the economy seats allow passengers to lie back, stretch out and sleep - a world first for economy travel.
The reveal will take place in a special mock-up of Boeing's 787 / 777 cabin, which has been purpose-built in an Auckland warehouse.
Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe told _The West Australian _that the new seats' designs would quite simply "redefine long-haul travel and set a benchmark for competitors to follow."
The new seats will be introduced in November when the airline takes delivery of its first 365-seat Boeing 777-300ER.
Last year, low-cost airline Ryanair suggested that it was looking at offering a standing option for economy passengers, while Lufthansa and Airbus hold a patent for passengers to be strapped to backboards in a vertical position.
It is understood that Air New Zealand's new seats do not embrace either concept.
Full details of the new seats can be seen first on www.thewest.com.au from 6am on Tuesday.
You can read Geoffrey Thomas' exclusive behind-the-scenes story of the seat makeover in Saturday's Weekend Travel on January 30.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/travel/a/-/travel/6714888/airline-to-unveil-seating-revamp

 

[lovestotravel]

Air NZ has always been ahead of the airlines down this way.

Premium Economy which they have had for years, QF and others followed.

Will be VERY interested to see what they do for Economy and Premium Economy.

Hopefully some improvements to business as well, but not much they can really do there as the NZ/AC J seats are much preferred by me over SkyBeds!

 

[ANstar]

Air NZ havent alwaysbeen revolultionary - it wasnt that long ago thattthey were still flying with main scree IFE only whislt the cometitors all had PTV's. I think it has been sice FYFE has been in control that they have been revolutionary.

 

[freofan]

It'd be nice if they'd be a bit more 'revolutionary' in the PER AKL premium cabin... Those seats, whilst comfy, are not adequate for international overnight flights...

 

[tuppaware]

Lie flat seating in Y?
I'd question how that would happen without eating your dinner on top of comb-over in front of you.

Vertical seating ?? Or just less seating and more room?
Maybe continuing on the trend of where the base of your seat moves forward as you lie back.

 

[auriga]

Will be interesting to see what they are coming up with!

 

[anat0l]

Lie flat seating in Y?
I'd question how that would happen without eating your dinner on top of comb-over in front of you.

Vertical seating ?? Or just less seating and more room?
Maybe continuing on the trend of where the base of your seat moves forward as you lie back.

I guess just like present times you'll have to make sure you only eat outside of sleeping times, and never recline during meal times. This time its a lot more pronounced.

I doubt we'll have fully flat seats in Y until they make something up like the crew rests or the like. Lie-flat seats I could see, and yes it would be similar to how the A380 QF Y seats are designed. Something like a lie-flat folding/unfolding seat angled at 30-45 degrees (or 135-150 degrees depending on where you start measuring the angle). It'd look unusual, and people complain enough as it is when there are lie-flat seats in J which have an angle of a mere 10-20 degrees.

Interesting times ahead...

 

[Flying Fox]

I'm very interested to see what ideas they have come up with.

 

[trooper]

My understanding is that each group of seats will have fold out/down/away options.... Much of the comment so far from NZ has been emphasis on allowing folks.. particularly families IIRC - to organise their own space to a greater extent....

Reckon you'll need two (or more) seats to yourself to produce anything like the "lie-flat" WE are no doubt thinking of...

Thoughts (dreams!) of seat blocking for elites have been thrown out there on FT....:mrgreen:

I'll be online bright and early tomorrow... very interesting at this point... Very keen to see what is happening with Biz and Y+ too!!!

 

[NYCguy]

Presumably NZ won't want to disenfranchise their Y+ passengers, so let's not expect miracles here.

 

[NM]

Lie flat seating in Y?

Who said anything about flat?

The text from NZ reads like "allow passengers to lie back, stretch out and sleep". That does not say they will be able to lie flat, just that they can lie back. So may just mean more recline. There have been all sorts of configurations proposed that would allow more recline capability in economy, including raising every second row to allow some over-under reclining, and staggering seats across the aircraft.

I guess we have to wait and see what innovation NZ has decided upon.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Maybe:

The seat-beds take-up two economy-class seats and will only be offered to passengers who have an empty seat next to them, add the report. People will be offered the seat-bed upon check-in at a charge of NZ$150 ($112), they say.
ANZ looking at seat-beds in economy class

 

[lovetravellingoz]

And:

Air New Zealand to reveal lie-flat economy class seat

Asked if economy passengers would receive a bed seat, Air New Zealand's chief executive, Rob Fyfe, would not say. However, the seat, developed in-house, was ''ground-breaking'', and would usher in a new benchmark in design, he said.
The seat will make its first appearance on board a new fleet of Boeing 777-300 ERs due to arrive from the end of this year, flying routes from Auckland to London via Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
It is believed that only part of the economy cabin will feature the new seat. Exactly how it will recline without taking up more space remains a closely guarded secret.
The retail director of the New Zealand travel agency House of Travel, Brent Thomas, said the seat was unlikely to ''exactly lie flat'' but it would allow an economy passenger to arrive refreshed, which was previously the preserve of the well-heeled seated in the front of the plane.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

And:

Air New Zealand turns unsold coach seats into your new bed | Gadling.com

The description does not go into too much detail, but apparently by sliding the seats forward and raising the foot rest, the seats will allow you to lie down flat and grab a couple of hours of sleep. The new seat design is the brainchild of Altitude Aerospace Interiors, an Air New Zealand subsidiary.

Empty seats will sell for $150, which is about in line with what I'd be willing to pay for the luxury of sleeping in coach.

According to aviation analysts, the design has the potential of earning the airline an additional $60 million each year.

If Air New Zealand can pull this off, they'll be the first airline to offer lie-flat beds in coach, hopefully starting a trend that other airlines are eager to copy.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

And:

Air New Zealand Wants To Sell Us A Coach-Middle-Seat-Bed Thing || Jaunted

—they want to sell empty middle seats to coach passengers. If the seat next to you is empty it will be yours as long as you are willing to part with $150. You’ll even be allowed to fully stretch out, as apparently the two seats will slide forward to make some sort of economy bed. They are still hush hush about all the details, and they want to wait until next year before revealing all the secrets about the new seating configurations. Late next year the airline is going to get some shiny new Boeing 777s and that’s where the magic is going to happen. Obviously the only true way to get access to a bed on an airplane is to pray to the upgrade gods or just to pony up for the obscene fares. However, if we were heading down to New Zealand we’d definitely be more than willing to throw down some of our spending cash on a little bit of in-flight comfort. No matter what, two seats is better than one, and it’s a better deal than the money we usually blow on drinks just to make ourselves comfortable.

 

[samh004]

I don’t understand how two seats side by side could become a bed, but would be interested to find out, and will bookmark this thread to get all the info immediately tomorrow morning.

 

[markis10]

I don’t understand how two seats side by side could become a bed, but would be interested to find out, and will bookmark this thread to get all the info immediately tomorrow morning.

No clarification from NZ on the two seat report, their idea is turning three seats into a bed, hardly earth shattering news. The New Zealand Herald has more info, such as two adults can buy the middle seat for 1/2 price and it turns into a skycouch:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10622347

 

[Pvcmenace]

Sounds interesting!!! Like a baseball glove when converted

 

[Pvcmenace]

Scoop: Premium Economy Booming For Air New Zealand

 

[NYCguy]

"Skycouch", huh? Wow... What a revolution!
And how tall is that man in the photo in the NZ Herald? 5'3?