Upgradia
ANA’s new Narita First Class lounge comes with private pods
18 February 2010 | Japanese carrier ANA is just about to open an upgraded First Class lounge at Tokyo Narita Airport for First Class passengers and ANA Diamond Members. Rebranded as the ANA Suite Lounge, the highlight of the new lounge are personal private rooms where passengers can work or relax while they get checked-in and wait for their flight. The ‘pods’ come equipped with a workspace, leather-covered chairs and 32-inch personal TVs, and aim to provide similar privacy on the ground as in ANA’s new First Class suites up in the air. Scheduled for Autumn 2010, ANA will also open an exclusive check-in service for First Class and Diamond member at Narita.
The private lounge suites also resemble an upscale version of the cubicles found in Internet and manga-cafe’s popular throughout Japan. Rent-by-the hour private restrooms have also been recently introduced in the U.S at Atlanta airport.
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BA opts for ‘understated British luxury’ in its new First Class
11 February 2010 | British Airways has just unveiled its new First cabin on a B777 aircraft enroute from London Heathrow to Chicago. The airline has invested GBP100 million (EUR110, USD150 million) in its new flagship product, and says the first class design is inspired by classic British luxury car brands Aston Martin and Jaguar. For example, the leather seat is fitted in a shade of dark blue called Naval Barathea, with cream leather trim around the headboard, and a silver-coloured knob, that looks as as if it should be on the dashboard of a Bentley, gives the customer precision control over the seat position.
BA says it is emphasising simplicity with its new First product, and sought to create an air of calm understated British luxury, which harks back to the 1920s and dismisses gimmicks innovations such as onboard bars, showers and private cabins. The amount of First Class seats (14 on a B777) will remain unchanged and the refit will take two years to complete (in total 73 aircraft will be refitted). BA will introduce the new First cabin on Dubai and Mumbai routes in the coming weeks.
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Long-haul low-cost carrier AirAsia X goes lie-flat in Business Class
2 February 2010 | AirAsia X, the long-haul operation of budget carrier AirAsia, has been growing rapidly to eight planes serving eight destinations today. In the second half of 2010, the carrier will add 4 new aircraft as part of its order of 25 A330s. The long-haul low-cost carrier currently flies from Kuala Lumpur to London (Stansted), Australia (Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth), China (Hangzhou, Tianjin, Chengdu) and Taipei, and in 2010 will launch services to Sydney, Mumbai and New Delhi (it will also discontinue its route to Abu Dhabi due to a lack of demand). Plans for flights to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka) as well as more Chinese destinations (Xi’an, Wuhan and Shenyang) are also on the table.
In a move to improve its premium product and increase the density in its economy class, AirAsia X is upgrading its business class to lie-flat seats. The seats are slightly angled, so they are not 180 degree flat, but AirAsia X claims it is the first budget airline to offer passengers a premium seat like this. The 28 ‘non-reclining’ black leather seats on AirAsia X’s 6 A330s will be replaced with 12 lie-flat beds, since, according to AirAsia X, the economics are very similar between 28 premium economy seats and 12 lie-flat bed seats, and therefore it might as well opt for the latter and up the quality of its product. The carrier will also replace the current 30 recliner seats on its 2 A340s with 18 lie-flat seats.
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Air New Zealand goes lie-flat in economy class
26 January 2010 | Air New Zealand (ANZ) has unveiled a new economy class seat dubbed the ‘Skycouch’, to give economy passengers a lie-flat experience once reserved for premium cabins. The Skycouch is made up of three standard economy seats that can be changed into a single, horizontal space by removing arm rests. The seats, designed by the airline in cooperation with IDEO and built by manufacturer Recaro, have large flip-up cushions that fill the space between the end of the seat and the next row of seats. When all three seats are reclined with the footrests up, they form a flat surface 156 cm long and 76 cm wide on which two adults can sleep (a standard single bed is 190 by 90 cm). Seat-belt extenders enable passengers to be buckled in when prone.
Individual travelers can buy the Skycouch seats, but ANZ has designed them chiefly for couples and families with young children. Passengers would need to buy the three seats together, and pay the full price for two economy seats and half price for the third. Twenty-two sets of Skycouch seats (about a quarter of all economy seats) will be available, being the first 11 window rows on either side of the economy cabin. Every seat also comes with in-seat power and USB connections.
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Finnair opens new lounge and spa at its ‘Via Helsinki’ hub and goes full-flat in business
23 December 2009 | Since the start of this decade, Finnair has been promoting its Helsinki hub as the ideal geographic hub to connect Europe and Asia, and cities like New York and New Delhi. This strategy has proved to be successful: In eight years, the number of passengers traveling back and forth between Europe and Asia via Helsinki has grown from 300,000 to over 1,3 million in 2009 (despite Finnair’s Asian traffic declining nearly ten percent this year). Part of their strategy to accommodate transfering Asian passengers, Finnair and Helsinki Airport were one of the first to introduce Mandarin-speaking staff at terminals to greet passengers arriving from China, and to display signs in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Also, passengers arriving from Asian destinations with under an hour to change flights are given boarding cards with a short connection notification which allow them to fast track security.
To further position itself as the gateway between Europe and Asia, Finnair and Helsinki Airport have invested EUR143/USD207 million in a new terminal extension which opened earlier this month. The new Terminal 2 annex sports Finnair’s new 1,000 sqm lounge, and a 600 sqm spa, both with runway views. The Via Lounge has room for around 250 customers and its services include six private shower rooms, seating areas for working or relaxing, free Wi-Fi, three iMac PCs, and ‘Powerkiss’ workdesks (which use wireless technology to recharge mobile phone). The Via Spa is located just behind the lounge and offers 4 different saunas (including a traditional Finnish one). Designed with transit passengers in mind, the spa also has a cold water paddling pool and a mineral water pool to alleviate travel fatigue and the effects of jetlag. The rest area has loungers facing the runway, with the lower parts of the windows blacked out so people can’t see in.
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ANA’s new cabin upgrade raises the bar in all classes
11 November 2009 | Japanese carrier ANA has unveiled a serious upgrade of all its four cabins, as part of its ‘Inspiration of Japan’ campaign. The new classes of service where originally meant for the Boeing 787 of which ANA will be the launch customer in late 2010, but due to the B787’s production delays the new cabins will already appear on ANA’s new B777-300ER in February 2010 (Tokyo to New York). According to the ANA: “We were hoping to unveil our new cabin experience on the 787, but we decided we couldn’t wait anymore, so it’s going on our new 777s from early in the new year”. ANA’s new 777s will have eight first-class seats, 68 business-class seats, 24 premium-economy seats and 112 seats in economy.
Re-branded as ANA First Square, ANA’s new first class features a private suite with a fully lie-flat bed, a 23-inch LCD touch screen, a baggage compartment and coat closet. At Tokyo Narita airport, ANA will introduce a ‘Suite Lounge’ in October 2010 for First Class passengers and Diamond tier members. Passengers will have their own private suite on the ground as well, where they can work or relax while they get checked-in and wait for their flight. Two other eye-catching features in the premium cabins are washrooms with warm-water bidet-toilets by Toto, which ANA says is a world’s first, and the option for passengers to select and order their meals via the touch screen of their IFE system (from April 2010). ANA’s new business class also has a full-flat bed (configuration is 1-2-1, so all seats have aisle acces), a 17-inch LCD touch screen, a large side table, and storage space for shoes. Read full article »
Air France takes a less extravagant approach to cabin features in its new A380 flagship
2 November 2009 | Last Friday (October 30), Air France became the first European airline to take delivery of the Airbus A380. Air France will operate the aircraft – of which it has 12 on firm order – in a three-class 538-seat layout (9 seats in first, 80 in business and 449 in economy), the highest density A380 configuration sofar. Air France’s A380 won’t have the carrier’s new premium economy class installed, which Air France will roll-out to its entire long-haul fleet by the end of 2010, because retrofitting the A380 might have upsetted Airbus’ tight production schedule.
Compared with Singapore Airlines (First Class suites, extra-wide business seats, USB in all seats), Emirates (suites, showers, staffed lounge bar in First), and Qantas (upgraded First, full-flat business beds, slim-line economy seats), Air France has taken a relatively modest outfit for its A380 flagship. This may have been a wise decision given the current economic recession and the expected post-crisis ‘New Normal’. At the other hand, surprisingly little upgrades in seat design have been made, other than improved seat covers in First, a larger IFE screen in Business, wider armrests in Economy, and USB sockets in all classes. Most notably, Air France has chosen not to install full-flat beds in its A380 flagship, at a time when even U.S carriers are going ‘horizontal’.
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Iberia to set up new ‘lower-cost’ feeder airline to serve Madrid hub
Picture courtesy of Matt Hintsa
28 October 2009 | The economic crisis and fierce competition from low-cost carriers and high-speed rail are forcing European network carriers to think about structural changes in their short-haul operations. One of the hardest hit airlines is Spanish flag carrier Iberia which has lost some of its most lucrative domestic routes to Spain’s expanding high-speed train network, while low-cost carriers (Ryanair, Easyjet) have hit its European services. In what Iberia calls nothing less than a ‘paradigm shift’, the airline has announced plans to replace its domestic and European operations with a new lower-cost feeder airline and focus the main Iberia operations on profitable long-haul sectors, mainly to Latin America.
Iberia said previous measure taken, including cuts in staff and capacity and the grounding of aircraft, had proved insufficient and that the current situation is unsustainable, saying: “We have a structural problem in our domestic and European operations. Thus we are proposing a total different model, with markedly lower operating costs and no ‘legacy’ work practices, which will allow us to compete with other carriers and the high-speed train.” As part of its restructuring plan Iberia will also lay off all flight attendants above the age of 55, and wages are frozen for two years for all employees.
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