What trends are emerging in the design of first and business class seats, and how are they likely to evolve in the future? Michelle Mannion reports
There’s no doubt that in the past decade or so, long-haul premium seats have got even more premium. Business seats are flatter, wider and more luxurious, while many first class products are better described as suites than seats. There may currently be nostalgia for the golden age of flying, with TV series Pan Am harking back to more glamorous times and British Airways celebrating its heritage in a new advertising campaign, but, if you can pay for it, there’s never been a better time to fly at the front of the plane.
That this transformation has taken place during arguably the most testing period in the history of aviation – first the catastrophic effects of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, then the impact of the global financial crisis and the spiralling price of fuel – is a testament to the determination of airlines to innovate. And, of course, to meet the demands of their most prized passengers, whose expectations have not dropped in line with profit margins.
So what trends have emerged in how the top seats on long-haul aircraft are designed, and how may they develop in the years to come?
BUSINESS VERSUS FIRST
James Park, managing director of James Park Associates (JPA) – the design company behind seats such as Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) A380 business class and B777 first class products, and Cathay Pacific’s new business seat – has noticed the shift business class is making towards first.
“The offer that premium airlines have now is much better than 15 years ago,” he says. “You’re also seeing a closing of the gap between first and business class in most cases. There’s not much difference between a lot of first class seating and some of the later business seats we’ve been doing.”
Jeffrey Forsbrey, vice-president of sales and marketing for seat designer EADS Sogerma, agrees. “Business class has been pulled up to first class, certainly since the move to fully-flat products and since airlines are spending more time on branding and making their products unique,” he says. As evidence, one of his company’s first class designs, the Class 180, which was developed a decade ago, is now being used as a business seat by Oman Air.
As a result – or just as likely a consequence of market conditions – first class is being reduced. Kent Craver, regional director for passenger satisfaction and revenue at Boeing, says: “The trend globally is a downsizing of the first class cabin or an elimination completely on some [airlines]. Usually they are removing a row and going to one row, or two, so four or eight seats as opposed to 12 or 14. Products are getting bigger, so that’s part of it. Typically, if they’re removing first class they’re filling the space with business.” Qantas and Qatar Airways are among the carriers to have reduced first class in recent years.
At the same time, Craver points out that a handful of carriers are moving to a “super first class” private cabin model, such as the luxury suites seen on the likes of Emirates and SIA’s A380s. “It’s a piece of bragging rights,” he says. Still, don’t expect too many airlines to try to emulate it. That’s as much to do with questions of culture or brand as it is the footprint on board.
Alex McGowan, general manager for product at Cathay Pacific, says: “Cutting the passenger off from our crew would be at odds with our brand, which is about engaging with warm, professional staff. Privacy means not being overlooked, being able to see the cabin without being seen – but those things aren’t predicated on having a suite design.”
Dorothea von Boxberg, head of product management intercontinental at Lufthansa, agrees: “As a Western European carrier we like open space in the cabin, to be able to see other passengers but at the same time have privacy when you want to sleep. If you look at the Gulf carriers, the concept is more private cabins – that’s a concept there is demand for but not one a carrier like Lufthansa would go for.”
Instead, the German carrier has chosen to differentiate itself by introducing a separate seat/bed product on its B747-400s. “This is the most luxurious first class you’ll find anywhere because you’ve got a full bed and a full seat,” she claims. EADS Sogerma, meanwhile, is seeking a buyer for its Ultimate Sleeper – a variation on Lufthansa Technik’s Aerosleeper product, it provides an 80-inch by 42-inch bed that folds out over the seat.
GOING FLAT OUT
The key factor that has made business class a rival to first is the widespread adoption of fully-flat seating in the second cabin. That is set to become a prerequisite for premium airlines if they are to stay competitive, and as a result we can expect angled lie-flat seats to become less popular.
Craver says: “BA started the trend when it brought in the first fully-flat seat. Airlines struggled at the time to respond because of the pain of giving up that much real estate on the plane, so the initial reaction was to go to angled [lie]-flat. But in the past five years we’ve seen that the market doesn’t care so much for that seat, and to stay competitive on long-haul, fully-flat is the way airlines are going.”
Forsbrey confirms that EADS Sogerma’s angled seat, Evolys, is being superseded by its fully-flat product, Solstys, flown by carriers such as Etihad and Alitalia. “We have some existing customers coming back for Evolys and I think it will continue, but Solstys is what we call a premium business class seat. It has been a big success for us,” he says.
Lufthansa is one airline joining the fully-flat party this year, launching its new business seat on the B747-800 in the spring and then retrofitting the rest of its fleet. Von Boxberg says: “We want to do [the retrofit] in a fast manner so people don’t have to wait ages to get the new seats.” European rival KLM will reportedly begin installing a fully-flat seat in 2013.
US carriers have lagged behind their global rivals owing to financial constraints, but now they are racing to catch up. United, Continental and Delta have all unveiled 180-degree products in the past few years, while last November, American Airlines announced it would introduce a fully-flat seat on its ten forthcoming B777-300ER aircraft, to be delivered this year and next (see Upfront, page 6).
MAXIMISING SPACE
To make fully-flat financially viable, we can expect to see more airlines using less traditional configurations, such as staggered layouts, herringbone seating and the “yin-yang” forward-backward style popularised by BA. Carriers will also be scrutinising the way they use the space around the seat itself.
At the end of 2010, Cathay Pacific unveiled a brand new business seat after launching its previous 180-degree product only in 2007, following customer complaints. “The intelligent use of space was a key learning for us,” McGowan says. “We went through multiple rounds of development and testing, obsessing over millimetres. Fundamental to the new design is the ability to turn while you’re asleep – across the shoulders we have about 33-34 inches [of width], and around your knees about
44-45 inches [via] a carved-out area we’ve designed for you to stretch your knees into when you’re on your side. At its [widest] that’s about four feet, more than a single bed.”
Making best use of space without increasing the overall footprint of the seat was crucial to British Airways’ new first class design, introduced in 2010. Peter Cooke, the airline’s design manager, says: “The internal space within each passenger area was much more cleverly designed. We took away a lot of the hard product and turned it into a lower-surface soft product, to give a larger bed – so we went from a 21-inch-wide bed to a 33-inch bed.” He says that when the airline takes delivery of its first A380 in 2013, it will “use most of the same seat product but evolve the space around it to give more space back to the passenger”. The superjumbo will also feature a refreshed Club World product.
Still, don’t expect overall seat dimensions in either class to change much in the near future. McGowan says: “I think we’ve reached a point in business class where there may be small incremental increases in length and width but it won’t be anything as fundamental as over the past decade.” EADS Sogerma’s Forsbrey agrees: “We’ve probably got to the optimum length and width. You don’t need a
50-inch-wide seat in first class. Pitch is around 80-82 inches and within that you can produce a very good product for an airline.”
BELLS AND WHISTLES
What about functionality? In-seat features have become so advanced that some come with a manual, but it seems the basics – space to work and put your things – are what customers are really demanding. Forsbrey says: “[In first class] most carriers are now asking for the ability to hang your coat where you sit, so there’s a wardrobe of some sort. Some are asking for minibars. All are asking for additional stowage for laptops. They also like larger tables.” Cathay’s seat has a cocktail table that fits next to the fold-out main one to create a large surface for working. It also has more storage space, as does BA’s first class seat.
It’s perhaps these kinds of things you can expect to see in the future, then, rather than high-tech gizmos – especially with fuel costs shooting up and weight a crucial concern. Cooke says: “We weren’t into providing lots of bells and whistles and gadgets. If you can justify carrying all that around on an aircraft, if someone’s going to really need it and want it, then design it in. We like to design products that people are going to use and that are relevant for their experience.”
It’s unlikely that added extras such as showers and onboard bars will become industry standards either. “We’re about designing what’s right rather than frivolously putting in extra bits,” Cooke says. “We wouldn’t just go around saying: ‘Emirates has got a shower so we need one.’”
As Boeing’s Craver points out: “It all goes back to real estate – if an airline can’t use that space for revenue generation, they may fill it with something like that. Some airlines truly believe in those types of products [and have chosen them] as part of their brand image, but for the most part we are seeing airlines struggle to justify it from a cost basis.”
What passengers can expect is for airlines to try to differentiate themselves by raising the standards of the whole package they are offering – not just the seat but ground services such as lounges and chauffeur-driven cars. Says McGowan: “I think where we’ll see passengers’ expectations rising and airlines stepping up to address them is in the detail around the seat – that may be in catering, IFE [in-flight entertainment] or internet and mobile phone connectivity.”
HOME COMFORTS
Something you can also expect to find is a more home-like feel on board. McGowan says: “When you walk on to the aircraft, I think you get a residential vibe. We’ve used dark greens, soft fabric and leather accents, and commissioned artwork.” This decision was reached after conducting research among passengers. “The idea of being in a soft, comforting environment rather than a corporate one came through strongly,” he says.
Von Boxberg agrees: “We’ve moved from the classical silver and blues to warm colours – in first class you can already see it and in business class [the refit] has started. The whole design idea was inspired by furniture in the home. To feel relaxed in a friendly environment – that’s what we think passengers are looking for.”
For BA’s new first class, this theme has extended to how the cabin is lit. “A lot of new lighting technology concerns LED, but we felt it was too harsh for first class – it tends to be quite cold and blue,” Cooke says. “We developed a much warmer tone of light, like a candle light.”
The airline also took inspiration from the luxury car industry, working with design consultancy Forpeople, which has collaborated with Aston Martin and Jaguar: “We felt we needed to play catch-up with a lot of automotive interiors – it was important to replicate some of those amazing trims and finishes you get in expensive cars,” he says. “The customer shouldn’t feel they are stepping out of one experience into a lesser one.”
If that’s the case, might the airlines also start taking tips from the hotel industry? JPA’s Park, whose company has also worked on designs for luxury properties, says: “You’d think there would be a link between the entertainment in the hotel room and the IFE, and that’s one thing we could hope to see in the future.”
Innovation challenge
Ultimately, given market conditions, it’s realistic to expect the carriers to exercise caution when it comes to bringing in new products in the next few years. Von Boxberg says: “The industry has become volatile and that makes it difficult to invest in something very different. I would imagine [future developments] will be an evolution from current standards and nothing that is a real rupture to how it has been done in the past.”
So it might be some time before we see one particularly revolutionary concept appear in the premium classes – that of double-deck seating within the cabin. Says Park: “It does bring with it significant engineering issues that no one has been foolhardy enough to take on yet. I’m sure, ultimately, it’s doable but it’s a big undertaking and there are weight limitations. So it may be that it’s a non-starter at this stage.”
Still, EADS Sogerma has a business seat in production that takes a step in this direction. Equinox is a fully-flat product that uses “the vertical plain”, as Forsbrey puts it, to increase passenger density. “To compress the pitch we overlaid the feet position of the two seats in a side-by-side configuration,” he explains. “When you go to the bed position, the seat on the window side goes up and the seat on the aisle side goes down.” He can’t reveal the carrier the seat is being produced for, but says the company is “pushing Equinox for B787 and A380 operability”.
Whatever the future holds, Park is hopeful that the economic situation will inspire greater creativity rather than less. “I’d like to think there will be more because as the challenges get greater, that puts pressure on people to be more innovative,” he says.
Cooke at BA agrees: “Things are tough at the moment and there’s no question fuel price is always rising. Weight is going to be a key factor in designing anything that goes on board. It’s about getting a lot cleverer with some of the things we do – the mechanisms we use, modern technology, the materials. I think we’re going to see some interesting innovations out of hard times. I think it’s going to be quite good really – it’s going to be good for the airline industry to consider all this stuff.”
