PREMIUM AIR BY GARY NOAKES
answer, the A350, is still a rarity. Several carriers will put the aircraft into service in 2016, but Finnair, which introduced it on Helsinki-Shanghai in November, followed by Beijing in January, became the first European carrier to put it into regular service. Finnair features the latest business class cabin on the aircraft, which has the 1-2-1 layout that is becoming standard due to passengers’ dislike of stepping over others to exit their seat. Singapore Airlines puts its first A350 on
American Airlines premium economy
has offered little apart from a few more inches of legroom. Essentials adds just a checked bag, while Enhanced, aimed at the corporate flyer, adds lounge access, mileage points, early boarding and priority treatment at some airports. United will evaluate how these two concepts go in the next few months before a full roll-out. Cefolia says the airline doesn’t yet know if this will be a precur- sor to offering a full premium economy product. “It’s something we have been evaluating for a long time,” says Cefolia. “There’s a fair amount of revenue risk in the gaps between premium economy and business. You open yourself to people who were historically business customers buying the lower fare. You can offset that by people buying up, but that is the maths you have to do – in the past, we have run the maths and said that we liked the course we are on.” One carrier that disagrees is United’s
rival American Airlines, which debuts a proper international premium economy cabin in late 2016. This is a major step up from Main Cabin Extra, the basic extra legroom section in economy, which will remain an option. Passengers in the new cabin get leather seats with a 38-inch pitch, larger TVs and noise- reducing headsets plus upgraded meals and wifi. The seats will first appear on new Boeing 787-9s and will be fitted on most of the airline’s long-haul fleet within three years.
AIRBUSES COMING ONLINE The 787 is now more of a regular sight at the world’s airports, but Airbus’s
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM KLM’s new World Business Class
There are hints that airlines are more prepared to be flexible in how they sell in the future, with at least one carrier testing a modular approach in premium economy
the Amsterdam run in April; again, this is complete with a new design business cabin and its already renowned premium economy section, which it introduced last autumn. Ten of these aircraft will join the fleet this year, part of a total order of 63. Other A350 debuts include TAM, which will use the aircraft on Madrid-Sao Paulo from April and Cathay Pacific, which will use it to launch Gatwick-Hong Kong from September 2. Cathay’s A350 will feature a tweaked business class seat design and wifi, but the major change is likely to be premium economy, which gets padded legrests and more legroom. Meanwhile, Air France will finish the
refit of its cabins this summer – a few of its Boeing 777-200s need to be completed, plus its Airbus A380s (the airline’s flag- ship). The A380s were the most recent entries to the fleet and consequently
BBT MARCH/APRIL 2016
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