Alex McWhirter examines topical issues. This month: seat layouts on the Dreamliner.
Have you noticed something different about the B787? No, it’s not the Dreamliner’s external appearance – rather, it’s the fact that it is the first popular long-haul plane without first class.
So far, every international B787 carrier has said it will offer either two-class (business and economy) or three-class (business, premium economy and economy) seating. And it’s significant that the first two carriers to operate the plane on long-distance routes – Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) – never specified first class even though their home country has a hierarchical corporate travel market.
So what’s the reason for not having first class? One is that the Dreamliner is designed to bypass major city pairs so there would be less demand for a top class cabin. Another is that today’s first class suites take up so much space that it would be uneconomical to provide them on the B787, which is smaller than a B777 or A380.
In media briefings, Boeing executives have said they do not expect any B787 carrier to provide first class. They maintain that business is the new first class – on the B787 at least. Meanwhile, Akbar Al Baker, chief executive of Qatar Airways, proclaimed at Berlin’s ITB trade show in March when he unveiled the carrier’s Dreamliner business class: “Why pay for first class when you can have first class comfort at business class fares on our B787?”
While Qatar can feasibly make such a claim, with its spacious four-across (1-2-1) layout – a configuration also adopted by ANA on its international B787s – every other carrier that has ordered the plane and published its seating plan has indicated it will move to a six-across (2-2-2) layout. This is underwhelming to say the least, as the Dreamliner’s cabin is narrower than its long-haul rivals the B777 and A380.
So the real improvement is that every carrier will feature fully-flat beds in business class. This is just as well when you consider that the first batch of Dreamliners will tackle nonstop missions of up to 14 hours. Future variants will be capable of even longer routes, so passenger comfort is paramount.
Because of the wider seats, the six-across layout can look almost as dense as the nine-across (3-3-3) B787 economy layout I wrote about in this column in May (see businesstraveller.com/archive/2012/ may-2012). Neither is it clear whether premium economy seating will be improved. LOT Polish Airlines says it will adopt a seven-across (2-3-2) layout for its superior economy cabin.
On the other hand, US carrier United will stay with a 3-3-3 configuration for its 72-seater Economy Plus zone – its version of premium economy – which is the same as normal economy. The only advantage to customers is the extra legroom in this cabin, which will be needed as United has announced that its inaugural B787 route will be the 9,334km Denver-Tokyo stage.
Will any Dreamliner operator match Qatar Airways’ business class? Well, Singapore Airlines is a big customer of the B787 and although it has not yet revealed its seating plans, it can hardly offer anything less spacious than 1-2-1 seating, as it pioneered this layout on its B777-300ERs and A380s. Air New Zealand would also be a possibility as its business class is 1-2-1 but in a herringbone layout. And the others? We can only wait and see.
- At the time of writing, there was a limited number of B787 long-distance routes in operation. ANA flies the plane on Tokyo Haneda-Frankfurt and JAL on Tokyo Narita to Moscow and Boston. The next Dreamliner services are expected to be operated by Air India, Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar Airways. Details of these carriers’ first flights remained unavailable as we went to press.
