Concorde has left the scene and major international airlines have been investing heavily to convince well-heeled passengers that they can still receive luxury service, but without a supersonic price tag
For your main course - Herb roasted rack of lamb with poivrade sauce, baby carrots and Yucan potatoes, or Maine lobster with champagne sauce, fresh asparagus and risotto, or Normandy free range chicken with calvados and wild mushrooms
Part of the menu of an upmarket restaurant in London or New York? No, these were three of four typical menu choices on flights of the now-grounded British Airways Concorde flying between New York and London.
Food and drinks from the "Concorde Cellar" were just two elements of the ultra-first-class service on the world's only supersonic commercial passenger aircraft. Besides the rapidity of the transatlantic crossing - 3.5h at twice the speed of sound - there was the exclusive airport lounge, private boarding directly from the lounge, separate check-in and security, sleek soft leather seats on board and a Concorde trinket to take home.
With Concorde's demise, key international airlines - among them Virgin Atlantic Airways, Lufthansa German Airlines and Air France - are hoping upgrades to their premium-class services will attract both the admittedly dwindling number of transatlantic travellers who were willing or able to pay the hefty $12,680 return for Concorde as well as other travellers who want an upmarket product but not at a stratospheric price.
In their cabin renewals, carriers are also beginning to tailor aircraft seating to specific routes, sometimes removing first class altogether in favour of an expanded, less pricey business class that is looking increasingly like first.
Virgin Atlantic, which has from its start in 1984 offered its Upper Class as a first-class product at a business-class price, has begun equipping aircraft with a new "Upper Class Suite" to lure premium travellers. "We'll be going after the first-class flyers, ex-Concorde flyers and standard business-class flyers," says one Virgin official.
Suite development
An $80 million investment two years in development, Virgin's "suite" consists of a soft leather seat that does not extend into a bed - as most other bed-seats do - but flips over into a separate bed with a "mattress" to sleep on. "Traditional designs of business-class seats where the seat extends into a bed ultimately result in a compromise in comfort for both products," says Joe Ferry, Virgin's head of design and one of the seat inventors, in a not-so-veiled reference to the business-class beds of competitor British Airways.
Virgin's suites, up to 45 depending on aircraft, are configured in a herringbone style in a one-two-one cabin arrangement so every passenger has access to an aisle and no one faces backwards. Each seat has an Ottoman which can serve as a seat so two passengers can eat together. The 79.5in (2.02m) long, totally flat bed also is considerably wider - 33in at the shoulder - than most bed seats being installed.
The new suites were introduced on a Boeing 747-400 operating between New York and London. All aircraft operating from London Heathrow will be equipped with the new section by spring 2004 and all London Gatwick flights by autumn. The new section's enhancements include a newly designed bar being placed in an area discreet from the cabin to avoid disturbing those who want to sleep.
Lufthansa is investing €300 million ($370 million) to install a new business class with "PrivateBed", an ergonomic seat that converts into a 2m flat bed with a 171° recline. A fold-away screen provides privacy. The bed has six independent motors that allow seat adjustment to different positions and are stored in memory for recall at any time. It also has a built-in massage function.
The new business class is making its debut in Lufthansa's new Airbus A340-600s which will have two classes - 66 in PrivateBeds and 279 in economy. The first of 10 new A340s was set to begin service to Buenos Aires, with the next two aircraft set for Toronto and Vancouver. The A340s and 10 new Airbus A330-300s will be outfitted with the new business class in Toulouse, with 60 other long-haul aircraft - half 747-400s and half A340-300s - refitted as they come in for maintenance. All aircraft will be complete by spring 2006.
Air France also is in the process of a €300 million revamp of its "l'Espace Premiere" first and "l'Espace Affaires" business class. The airline says it is committed to maintain, or even enhance, a "luxury" first-class cabin but will be scaling back first class to just 20 destinations. In aircraft retaining first class, Air France is taking out four of 12 seats which will provide 50% more space.
In aircraft without first class, premium passengers will find new business class similar to its existing first-class environment, the airline says, including a lie-flat bed, which reclines to 180°, with a rigid shell for privacy.
Making a distinction between the two cabins, Air France says first class will emphasise classic, French-style luxury, while business class provides comfort and efficiency. The routes on which three classes are offered has not been finalised, but Tokyo and New York JFK will be among them. The first US point to see the new business class in a two-cabin aircraft will be Newark in the first quarter of 2004. It will take about 18 months for Air France to refit its existing 69 long-haul aircraft with the new products.
The upsurge in spending on premium-class products follows several years of holding back. Many investments were put off in part because of the effects of the 11 September attacks, worldwide economic recession, war in Iraq and the SARS epidemic. Spending by airlines in the Asia-Pacific region and fast-expanding Emirates has also begun in earnest.
In presenting their new products, the airlines tout such elements as the longest, widest and most comfortable bed, best food and drink, most privacy and personal space, best desk and power source for work, most storage, largest television screen, widest possible audio/video selections and increasingly internet connectivity. But the beds - especially in business class - are key.
Leapfrogging BA
New business class bed-seats allow the Asian carriers to catch up - possibly leapfrog - advances made by BA when it introduced lie-flat beds in Club World business class in mid-2000. It was an innovation believed to have drawn new premium passengers to BA. Almost all its long-haul aircraft now have been fitted with the bed-seats, with the new Club World interiors operating on more than 50 routes. Just three US routes remain: aircraft operating from London to Atlanta, Orlando and Tampa will have bed-seats early this year.
Cathay Pacific Airways also planned premium-cabin upgrades before 11 September and also kept to its timetable. As 2004 starts, Cathay has retrofitted nearly all long-haul aircraft with its adjustable business-class bed-sets and other amenities. And it already has tweaked business class to respond to passenger input. Its stretch-flat beds now have a 171° recline, instead of the original 167°. Although its first-class beds can be horizontal to the floor, Cathay says research shows most business passengers prefer to sleep in an intermediate position, a finding reported by other carriers.
Cathay has retained a popular bar area but removed the private dressing room - it was not being used - and put in an extra lavatory. Cathay was the first carrier to offer its passengers in-flight email and internet capability, although others are following suit.
Singapore Airlines, which slowed the pace of installation of its 26in-wide SpaceBed product in business class after 11 September, has opted to forego its award-winning first class on new Airbus A340-500s but will equip them with an amenity-rich business class. On the new aircraft, being called its "LeaderShip", Singapore's Raffles Class will feature 64 lie-flat SpaceBeds in a spacious two-two-two seat layout - with all the bells and whistles that might be expected.
The aircraft will inaugurate the longest commercial nonstop in February on the Singapore-Los Angeles route, about 18.5h westbound. "We acknowledge that the flight is long," says Michael Tan, senior executive vice president-commercial. "Therefore we have to focus a lot of our attention on the comforts and space in the aircraft."
All Nippon Airways, which has progressively been installing a luxurious New First Class in its aircraft with possibly the widest bed - 33in - in a cubicle, has created a New Style Club ANA business class with 170° recline "Easy Sleeper Seat." The new section is installed on six aircraft operating to London, New York and Frankfurt and this year will be operating to Paris. One of the features of the new business class is an on-demand meal service.
Qantas also has redesigned its business-class service at a cost of $261 million, using the "Skybed" passenger seat as its centrepiece. The 78.5in-long sleeper seat has an articulating arm structure which moves downward as the seat reclines to 172° to provide greater bed width. The bed-seat has an eight-way back massager and a cocoon-style shell around the seat for privacy and personal space.
The 747-400s equipped with Skybed have begun flying initially to London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok from Sydney and will be operating to Los Angeles and New York in early 2004. All Qantas A330-300s and 747s will be refitted with the new seats.
First-class dilemma
A problem looms with these innovations. "All of this change in business class is creating a dilemma for first class," says Michael Baughan, senior vice-president and general manager of B/E Aerospace's commercial aircraft products group. "Today's business class is significantly better than first class used to be." That is why some carriers, like Singapore, Air France and Lufthansa, are choosing to eliminate first class on parts of their fleet and on certain routes.
Iberia is going even further, planning to end first-class on all 25 long-haul aircraft and replace it and existing business-class seats with an enhanced product. Iberia's new section, including a near-flat bed-seat, will be introduced first in the seven A340-600s the carrier will begin getting in mid-2004. After that, Iberia's existing aircraft will be reconfigured.
"For the ones that keep first class, a redefinition will come - not just in terms of the seat but in the cabin environment itself," B/E's Baughan says. Enter Emirates. The carrier is spending about $125,000 each for a dozen first-class suites in its new A340-500s. The lavish, fully enclosed suites have doors that close, leather seats with a massage function that convert to beds, dining tables, vanity tables and 480mm video monitors. Passengers will phone the galley to order meals, served when they want. The aircraft, serving Dubai-Sydney first, will also be used to begin service to New York in 2004.
BA, which pioneered flat beds in first class in 1996 as well as in business four years later, is quiet on what it might do next for premium travellers. Commenting on the need to respond to Virgin's new transatlantic product, Martin George, BA marketing director, suggests that the carrier will continue to innovate when it comes to its long-haul business-class product, although he declines to be specific.
The airline has been experimenting with refinements. In October, it operated 16 flights between New York and London with a "sleeper service" in Club World to give passengers a longer, quieter time to sleep. On these late-night 747-400 flights, passengers could dine in the lounge before boarding or help themselves on board to sandwiches, salads, cheese plates and the like set up in the galley. In "bed", passengers were offered upgraded pillows and blankets for added comfort.
The trial was deemed successful and "sleeper service" is again being tested at the turn of the year on some late-night flights between Washington-London and Dubai-London.
BA designers are looking at new aircraft seat concepts too. While today's premium seats are easily adjustable by passengers, a future seat might be able to adjust automatically to the passenger's comfort requirements and remember these parameters for a future flight. How would that work? The "smart" or "plasma" seat could read a person's body temperature and automatically adjust its surface temperature to match. The seat could also scan a person's height and weight and inflate and deflate strategically placed air pockets to mould into the body for maximum comfort, similar to some fighter-pilot seat technology.
The seat parameters could be stored on a swipe card, which would be downloaded each time the traveller flies, to provide an instantly tailored seat. Reliability and power issues are still to be overcome before something like this becomes reality, BA designers say.
Business allure
Besides seeking to lure premium travellers to its regular mainline services, Lufthansa continues to experiment with business jets on three routes between Germany and the USA that could not support larger aircraft. Two Airbus Corporate Jets (A319s) and a Boeing Business Jet (737-700), each seating 48 in an all-business class configuration, are being operated for Lufthansa by PrivatAir six days a week. Lufthansa started the service between Newark and Düsseldorf in 2002 to serve pharmaceutical company executives on both sides of the Atlantic and in 2003 added Newark-Munich and Chicago-Düsseldorf. The routes do well, Lufthansa says, and others could be added with the appropriate business case. "We are innovators on the one hand, but cautious on the other hand," says Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Lufthansa's chairman and chief executive. "The destinations we have now are the prime markets. The question is: are there others?"
Lufthansa also has an unusual ability to tailor existing long-haul passenger aircraft to meet greater or lesser demand for business-class seating on its A340-300s and 747-400s on a daily basis. An A340-300 with 42 business class and 197 economy seats, for instance, can be reconfigured at Lufthansa's Frankfurt hub to carry 54 business passengers and 173 in economy if the aircraft is on the ground for two or three hours.
Seats are on pallets brought to the aircraft by truck for the change, using the door 3 compartment. Such a transformation happens at least daily, a Lufthansa Technik official says, although the airline prefers to change aircraft route planning to avoid the reconfiguration expense.
US carriers lag
US carriers in general have not joined in the current premium-product spending spree. There has been little public commitment to providing bed-seats in business class, with the exception of Northwest Airlines, and only American and United Airlines have beds in first class, now a staple on most key international carriers. Although Continental Airlines eliminated first class years ago to create BusinessFirst on long-haul aircraft and was followed by others, no US carrier has installed business-class bed-seats before.
Northwest, which gave up first class previously, is now introducing new bed-seats in World Business Class. The new-technology B/E Aerospace seat, with 176° of recline, was introduced in Northwest's first A330-300 and was put into service on Detroit-Amsterdam flights in August. The aircraft are equipped with 34 business and 264 economy seats.
Four more A330s have been delivered with the new seats and are operating from Detroit to Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Northwest has also retrofitted the first of 16 747-400s, putting in 65 new World Business seats, which is operating to Tokyo. The entire 747-400 fleet is to be refitted by the end of the year.
The cost of new seats and IFE system, plus refitting is put at about $50-60 million; the capital cost of acquiring the seat and new IFE system is about $30,000 a seat. "We now offer a product that exceeds all of our domestic competitors," says Northwest.
Glenn Tilton, chairman of United Airlines, acknowledges that the carrier, the world's second largest airline, has fallen behind in cabin accoutrements. Noting that United hopes for a spring exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Tilton promises that its "capital budget is being prepared to close the gap" in terms of in-flight product, including lie-flat beds in business class on long-haul aircraft.
Despite their economic woes, the failure of US carriers to respond quickly to the new business-class bed-seats and other amenities offered by foreign competitors - and alliance partners - is bound to have an increasingly negative impact on their bottom lines. With business travel down and yields under pressure, every high-yield premium passenger is important to retain.
But with the advent of alliances and codeshare partnerships, business passengers can earn frequent-flyer mileage in their favourite domestic airline programme by flying on the airline's international partner - one that offers a good night's sleep on a long trip. The mileage builds up just the same.
REPORT BY CAROLE SHIFRIN IN WASHINGTON
Source: Airline Business
