First Flight Qantas Premium Economy Class
QANTAS says its new premium economy cabin is already performing strongly as passengers seeking to escape the cattle-class crush upgrade for the additional space and service.The first Boeing 747-400 fitted out with the new premium economy cabin flies today to Hong Kong. Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti said the airline was seeing customers upgrading from economy rather than downgrading from business class to save money.
Qantas is pricing the new cabin about halfway between economy and business class. This means return fares from Sydney start at $1996 to Hong Kong, $2580 to Bangkok, $4246 to Johannesburg and $4611 to London. However, passengers will initially be upgraded from economy and will not be charged until April 1, when the airline has enough planes to offer the cabin consistently on routes.
The extra money buys a seat pitch of between 38 inches and 42 inches, compared with 31-32 inches in economy, in a 2.5-inch wider Recaro seat. The specially designed seat also reclines further and has ergonomic cushioning and adjustable headrest. Premium economy passengers also get their own Neil Perry menu with wines, an in-arm touch screen video monitor, dedicated check-in and increased baggage allowance.
The A380 aircraft will also have a jack that will allow people to connect computer and other electronic devices. Other airlines that have had the product for some time have found it popular and a good way of improving yields. But Mr Borghetti claimed the Qantas product was superior to other premium economy products.
The Qantas cabin has 32 seats in a two-four-two configuration. The airline is installing the new seats at its maintenance facility in Avalon. The next three aircraft offering the feature are expected to start flying later this month. Qantas expects its entire 747 fleet to be configured by April next year. Mr Borghetti said this would include both three-class and two-class aircraft. He expected work on the three-class aircraft to be finished by December and work to start on two-class planes in January.
"It will mean that we will have premium economy on all our international 747 services and of course the A380s will come with it," he said. "So routes such as Brisbane-Los Angeles, which operate two-class 747s, will also get it."
Qantas has yet to decide how it will configure its Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
