Qantas will defy a global trend to cram more people into aircraft when it launches its new Boeing 787-9 “Dreamliner” aircraft and gives back to economy class passengers an inch of legroom.
The airline announced today that it will increase the seat pitch on its new economy seats from the 31 inches (78.8cms) found on its Airbus A380s to 32 inches on its new flagship Dreamliner.
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“The Dreamliner is an aircraft built for comfort,’’ Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said. “The windows are bigger, it helps reduce jetlag, it’s extremely quiet and there’s a system that smooths out turbulence. Customers are going to love it.
“We’re planning to make the most of the 787’s amazing range, so we’ve designed the cabin to give Qantas passengers a better experience on long haul flights.’’
The airline unveiled the business class and economy product for the new airliner but not its “class-leading and revolutionary” premium economy seats.
The aircraft will seat 236 passengers: 42 in business on seats that are an evolution of its acclaimed Thomson Aero Seating A330 suites, 166 in next generation economy seats and 28 in the premium economy cabin. The overall seat count is less than that of competitors such as United Airlines, which seats 252 on its equivalent planes, and Air New Zealand, which has 292 seats on its 787-9.
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While Qantas promised its premium economy seats will be “streets ahead of anything out there’’, all it revealed today was a roomy 2-3-2 configuration ahead of details to be released early next year. Although Qantas was a late adopter of premium economy its current product is highly regarded so industry interest in the new cabin will be high.
The brainchild of Australian industrial designer David Caon, the next generation Recaro economy seats, will be in a 3-3-3 configuration and offer a 6-inch seat recline. They are fitted with a bigger 12-inch high definition touch screen and a personal electronic device holder that will allow users to set up a tablet.
A standard personal reading light will be complemented by Individual mood lighting will be integrated into the back of each seat to help reduce disruption to other passengers.
The seats feature additional stowage for a water bottle, literature and small personal items as well as individual USB charging and shared PC power.
Qantas has also updated the “footnet” introduced in the A380 and designed to cradle the legs during sleep.
A potential downside is that the economy seats will be only 17.2 inches wide and narrower than rival Virgin Australia’s Boeing 777-300ER economy seats, which are 18.5 inches wide in a nine-across configuration and also sport a 32-inch seat pitch. The 787 seats are also marginally tighter than the 17.5-inch wide economy seats on Qantas A380s and close to the 17-inch wide seats that have caused consumer unhappiness on 10-across Boeing 777s.
However, Boeing studies have shown that most passengers would rather an extra inch of legroom over an extra inch of shoulder room. The aircraft manufacturer also says that the 787’s much larger windows give passengers a greater sense of space.
At the Singapore Air Show in February, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth told Australian Aviation that an independent survey by Mindset of economy class cabins of 10 airlines showed 48.2 per cent of respondents found the 787 cabin to be “very spacious”, compared to 34.5 per cent for the Airbus A380 and 17.3 per cent for the A330.
Mr Tinseth said that on the comfort aspect the survey found that 45.3 per cent gave the 787 cabin a big tick as “very comfortable”, compared to 34.2 per cent for the A380 and 20.5 per cent for the A330.
Regardless of the width debate in economy, it will be all smiles in the high-yielding premium economy and business class cabin. The aircraft’s 42 business class seats will be in a 1-2-1 configuration that guarantees all passengers direct aisle access and boast a comfortable 80-inch (203cm) flat bed, a new deployable privacy divider as well as 16-inch touch screens.
Like the A330 seats, they can be reclined during take-off and landing and all have ample space to work, good storage as well as in-seat USB and PC charging.
“Many of the cabin design elements reflect what our customers have told us,’’ Mr Joyce said. “Personal storage rates really highly, so we’ve created extra space in Economy for customers to store their personal devices and water bottles.
“We’re proud that our new economy seat includes features other carriers reserve for premium economy.
“We’re also redesigning the in-flight experience for the Dreamliner, from rethinking our menus to making better use of the self-service bars during different phases of flight.’’
Qantas has yet to confirm new routes for the Dreamliners but has said they will gradually take over routes currently operated by its Boeing 747s such as Sydney-Johannesburg.
But its decision to go for a lower seat count should mean it can fly further and mooted new routes include London-Perth, Dallas-Melbourne or Dallas-Brisbane.
The first international 787 flights will go on sale before Christmas and the airline will announce early next year the first ultra-long route.
