As business-class cabins become ever more luxurious, airlines find themselves at a fork in the road when it comes to deciding their future strategies for premium passengers.
They can either eliminate first class cabins from their premium offerings, choosing instead to equip their business-class cabins with all the bells and whistles once associated with first, or they can continue to offer first class but on a significantly grander and more opulent scale than before.
“Business-class cabins have the fastest evolution compared with all the other types of cabins,” says Zodiac Seats vice-president marketing and product strategy, Laurent Stritter. “This means two options for first-class cabins: either a significant upgrade going forward in the future; or [replacing] first class with an even more sophisticated business class. This will require of the seat manufacturers even more innovation.”
Responding to this evolving market, Zodiac last year unveiled its Halo first-class suite concept, which Stritter says provides “a glimpse of what can be expected in the first-class cabins of tomorrow, at least for the airlines that will keep going in this segment”.
Halo, which was nominated for a Crystal Cabin Award last year, showcases a number of innovations that could be used to put together a private first-class suite on an aircraft in the future. Design company Yellow Window, which has been helping Zodiac position the concept, says its “discrete technologies” allow passengers to adapt the space according to their changing needs.
Etihad can provide a full-size double bed
Etihad
“During the course of the flight, the environment can be configured to fit activities such as dining, work, leisure or rest,” says Yellow Window. “For the passenger there is no compromise: there is the possibility of intimacy of isolation, of inviting up to four persons into his/her suite, and of the comfort of a bed and bathroom typical of a luxury hotel.”
In putting together the Halo concept, designers sought to emphasise “the experiences most often restricted while on board” – such as sense of space, flexibility and freedom, Yellow Window says.
Stritter believes Zodiac is now well-equipped to address “all sub-segments of first class, from the business/first high-quality product, Fusio, to the very high-end concept, Halo, and high-end mini-suites, Venus”.
An alternative – and more radical position – is taken by Mark Hiller, chief executive of German manufacturer Recaro Aircraft Seating, who believes that first class as we know it will eventually be consigned to the history books.
“Traditional first class will disappear, or it will become a very special product,” says Hiller, pointing to the high-end premium offering unveiled last year by Etihad Airways as evidence of this trend.
The Gulf carrier’s top-of-the-range product, “The Residence”, is an 11.6m² (125ft²) three-room suite located on the upper deck of its Airbus A380s. It features a private living room, a separate en-suite shower room and a bedroom with a double bed – accompanied by a price tag nearing the cost of hiring a private jet.
The suite contains a 32in (81cm) LCD monitor in the living room plus an additional 24in screen in the bedroom, and passengers are waited on throughout the flight by their own personal butler. It can be booked for either single or double occupancy.
For first-class passengers with slightly thinner wallets, Etihad’s A380s and Boeing 787s also offer “apartments”, each featuring an armchair and an ottoman that converts into an 81in bed.
By offering its highest-paying passengers their own private bathroom, Etihad’s Residence suite goes one step beyond rival Emirates’ first class product, which offers passengers shared use of two onboard “shower spas”.
Qatar Airways, meanwhile, offers “the widest first-class seat in the industry”, according to chief executive Akbar Al-Baker. But rather than being enclosed in its own private suite, the seat features screens either side, which can be raised or lowered depending on the amount of privacy required. A touchscreen seat control allows passengers to activate an in-seat massage function.
Zodiac Seats' concept is a complete suite
Zodiac Aerospace
Air France has also started offering first class suites on Boeing 777-300 flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Singapore, Jakarta and Dubai. The carrier’s “La Première” product is separated from the rest of the cabin by a thick curtain, and features a seat that converts into a fully-flat bed complete with a mattress installed by flight attendants when required.
The first aircraft featuring La Première took off for Singapore and Jakarta in January, and the product was then deployed on Dubai flights in February, ahead of roll-out on services to New York, Libreville in Gabon and Yaoundè in Cameroon later this year. In addition to first class, the cabins on these aircraft will also include business-, premium-economy-, and economy-class seating.
For airlines that follow the alternative path and allow intercontinental first class to fall by the wayside in favour of an improved business class – examples include Air New Zealand and Delta Air Lines – weight savings and higher-density seating options are paramount, according to Hiller.
“Weight is very important with the disappearance of first class because business class cabins are larger than in the past, so there are more seats,” he says. The ability to expand or contract the size of the business-class cabin to match demand is increasingly attractive to airlines and for this to happen, “it is important that the seat is as light as possible”, adds Hiller.
Weighing in at around 80kg (176lb) “depending on the exact configuration”, Recaro’s CL6710 long-range business-class seat – which it launched at last year’s Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg – is “at least one of the lightest long-range business-class seats on the market”, says Hiller. Competing products are “up to 15-20kg heavier”, he adds.
The CL6710, described by Recaro as providing a “hotel feeling in the sky”, has a pitch of 46in and converts to a fully-flat bed measuring 82in. The manufacturer calls the seat a “win-win situation for passengers who enjoy maximum living space, as well as for airlines [which] can use their cabins efficiently”.
With two schools of thought coexisting on the definition of first class, it will be left to premium passengers to vote with their wallets to show which version they prefer and which has the most promising future.
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Source: Flight Daily News
