Economy bunk bed proposal for Air NZ’s new aircraft
A report in NZ’s Dominion Post says that Air New Zealand is considering replacing cramped economy seats with sleeping pods in a bid to revolutionise air travel and stay ahead of its much bigger rivals.
Air New Zealand strategic development general manager Nathan Agnew said the airline wants to introduce an entirely new type of economy cabin when it takes delivery of its fleet of Boeing 787-9 and 777-300ER long-range jets from 2010.
Seats that recline to full-length beds have until now been the preserve of business and first class passengers with Air New Zealand already equipping its planes with flat-bed business class seats, and premium economy seats which give about 15cm more leg room.
Cathay Pacific was fitting economy seats that recline within a fixed shell, similar to business class seats, and giving more leg room, adding, “We think that if you are going to do that concept why not push it to the next level, why stop there?”
“We haven’t even constrained ourselves to saying that it necessarily will be a seat”. “The other option is to give people a sleeping pod.”
Air New Zealand engineers had been given a project to think about how the concept could work, Agnew said.
German airline Lufthansa was considering fitting economy beds in its Airbus A380 super jumbos, with one concept showing berths stacked three-high in a herringbone layout along the sides, and another row stacked down the middle of the cabin.
“We like it (the pod) as a concept.” “We are yet to evaluate whether practically it could be fitted out to an aircraft interior,” Agnew said.
Cabin crew already sleep in pods during long distance flights, usually hidden away at the rear plane or in the ceiling space above the passenger cabin.
“Given that a lot of our long-haul flying is overnight, it might actually be preferable for our customers simply to have something like that rather than have a seat,” Agnew said.
Because eating in a pod might be difficult, passengers may be served a meal at the airport before the flight, allowing them to immediately go to sleep once on the plane.
“We have some quite creative ways, at least conceptually, how this could work.”
There were also a myriad of other issues to consider, like the ability to sit and video entertainment. On any flight some people want to sleep and others want to remain awake.
Agnew said airfares would be similar to current economy fares, but a big issue for engineers to overcome was finding a way to make the pods as light as possible.
Agnew stressed that it was still a theoretical concept with no guarantees that Air New Zealand would ultimately provide them in its new planes.
“We have started the process and we are trying to be highly creative. I wouldn’t want to put the expectation in the public mind that that is how it going be, but it certainly is in our evaluation set.”
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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