Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced plans to install new seats in all four cabins on its international fleet of B777-300ER aircraft.
The redesigned seats will debut on the daily service between London Heathrow and Tokyo Narita from January 2013, before being progressively expanded to New York JFK and other long-haul routes to Europe and North America.
JAL will start refitting 13 of its B777-300ERs with eight first, 49 fully-flat business, 40 premium economy and 135 economy class seats, before introducing the latest fully-flat business class beds on its 767-300ERs.
The new fully-flat beds in business class all have direct aisle access and 23-inch TV screens. Details about the first class seat are less concrete, with the carrier saying it will retain the qualities of the current JAL Suite product while boosting the size of IFE screens from 19 to 23 inches.
Premium economy will remain fixed-shell but will be widened by four inches and screens will be enlarged from nine to 12.1 inches. Economy seats will be slimmer, allowing for an increased pitch of two-three inches and just less than an inch of added width.
Takahisa Hatakeyama, vice president of product and service strategy development says: "Extensive research and planning have gone into the selection of these new products, and with the roll-out including other upcoming services, we hope to deliver on our promise to offer our customers excellence in safety and quality.”
JAL says it will announce more details for the new seats, as well as other upgrades to in-flight services and catering, in the middle of next month.
For more information visit uk.jal.com.
Report by Scott Carey
