Virgin Australia to upgrade transcon 737s
By Geoffrey Thomas Wed Jul 5, 2017
Virgin Australia is set to introduce an all-new business class to its transcontinental Boeing 737s as the airline shifts its A330s to Asian destinations.
Virgin’s CEO John Borghetti has told Australian Business Travellers’s Editor David Flynn that the upgraded 737s will be dedicated to transcontinental flights running between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth.
Speaking with ABT during the airline’s inaugural flight between Melbourne-Hong Kong route, Mr Borghetti said the airline's six-strong Airbus A330 fleet used on transcontinental flights "will be dedicated to Asia".
To replace the A330s Mr Borghetti promises the airline has a solution to business class passengers who have become accustomed to the suites, and “you’ll hear about it later this year.”
Mr Borghetti promises the new seat will represent a “quantum leap in domestic business class.”
It is likely that the Boeing 737s will be fitted with seats/beds similar to those installed on JetBlue’s A320 in the US.
Dubbed Mint, and the seat is a fully lie-flat 6' 8" affair and is 22.3" wide.
The seat is fitted with adjustable air cushions, has a massage function, comes with dual power outlets and a pair of USB ports and is fronted by a 15-inch flat screen monitor.
Virgin Australia recently rolled out its Economy X seating with the extra legroom proving popular among passengers.
The airline has reconfigured the first three rows of the economy cabin on most of its Boeing 737 fleet to give passengers prepared to shell out extra dollars an additional three inches (7.6cms) of legroom.
Combined with exit row seating, this means one in five seats in its B737 economy cabin — 30 seats on a B737-800 — are now branded, Economy X.
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