Firstclass seats
“Our long haul CL6710 business class combines these requirements as a ‘hotel room in the sky’. What is needed are products that offer a very good living space with high layout efficiency in terms of passenger count. “Whether eating, working, watching movies or sleeping, the passenger should feel good when flying. Angled lie-flat seats have practically disappeared from the fleets and step-over products are hardly in demand at all anymore, according to Mark Hiller, chief executive officer of RECARO Aircraft Seating. In recent years, fully flat seats (180° in flight) have become standard and all-aisle access is gaining ground as well. Together with bigger, soft cushions and luxurious new blankets, all this ensures a warm and friendly atmosphere in the new World Business Class.” “The palette of warm colours, which are different for every seat, combined with plenty of storage space, ensures greater comfort and more personal space for passengers. The positioning of the new seats in the cabin and various other smart design elements ensure maximum privacy while sleeping or working. “Our Boeing 787 seats have direct aisle access in Business Class.
KLM will have 100 per cent fully-flat seating in all long haul aircraft by the end of 2018,” notes KLM airlines. We already have fully flat seats in our Boeing 787s as well. In 2017, we completed the retrofit of the Boeing 777 fleet and earlier of the Boeing 747 fleet. “We are currently modernising our Airbus A330 aircraft and providing fully flat seats in our World Business Class.
“Airlines are focused on providing the highest levels of comfort and amenity for the passenger, so fully flat beds, adjustable levels of privacy and plenty of personal storage has become the standard for business class seats,” says Mark Vaughan, vice president of sales and marketing for aircraft seating and interior systems at Rockwell Collins. With a large number of new widebody aircraft being delivered, these new flagship aircraft have typically been given the first priority for the installation of new business class seats. While the trend to densify the seating capacity applies also to the premium part of the cabin, those carriers which offer a ‘luxury area’ – and these are mainly the major flag carriers – are continuing to look for maximum comfort and lie-flat capability, even if this is achieved with smarter and more compressed layouts, thus reducing the space-consuming bulkier products of the long haul cabin classes, notes Doria De Chiara, business development manager at Geven. One of the major and most evident developments of such seats has most certainly been the embedment of lie-flat capability features. The business class seat has evolved over time, to the point that it has nearly replaced first-class cabins on long haul flights. Business class seat installations onboard long haul aircraft have probably witnessed the most significant transformation in recent years.