Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) will be giving its domestic services a seat product overhaul over the coming years with select aircraft set to be retrofitted with new Premium Class and economy class seats, and an increase in the size of the premium cabins.
The overhauls, which are set to begin this autumn and are expected to be completed by the first half of the 2022 financial year, will include eight Boeing 777-200 and 11 B787-8 aircraft.
The new seats will “place ANA head and shoulders above the competition”, according to Hideki Hunugi, the airline’s executive vice president, and will “allow ANA to meet shifts in demand while ensuring unrivalled comfort and convenience for our passengers”.
So what can passengers expect from the new seat products?
The Premium Class seats notably will see larger 15-inch seat-back touchscreens installed, along with an expanded in-flight entertainment library. The airline is also expanding its onboard wifi entertainment service, enabling passengers to watch videos on their own devices via the ANA app. In-seat USB and power outlets will also be available across all seats.
The new seats will be made from an “advanced fabric”, according to a press release issued by the carrier, and will feature an “ergonomic” storage space located below the monitors, a rotating tray table and a retractable side table. A partition allowing for increased privacy will also be added.
In the economy class cabin, meanwhile, a new seat designed by automotive seat designer Toyota Boshoku will be installed. This is the same seat that has been outfitted on six of the carrier’s B767-300 aircraft.
The airline says it has placed a great deal of attention on making these seats as ergonomic as possible, claiming the seat “distributes pressure evenly throughout the body to make sitting more comfortable”. Passengers in the economy class cabin will also get a larger seat-back touchscreen – 11.6 inches – and a beverage holder.
ANA will also be tweaking the ratio of Premium Class seats to economy class, with more of the former set to be installed with the retrofit. The 777-200s will go from 21 Premium Class seats to 28, while the 787-8s will go from 12 to 28.
Elsewhere in its fleet, the Japanese carrier took delivery of its first 787-10 aircraft last month, deployed on services to Singapore and Bangkok.
The 787-10 features newer seat products than its predecessors, the 787-8 and the -9, that are similar to those outfitted on its new Airbus A380 superjumbos.
