Cathay Pacifics Airbus A350 next-gen business class Cathay Pacifics Airbus A350 business class seat will be evolution not revolution compared to the current design, while all-new first class suites may be fitted only to half of its A350-1000 fleet. The third generation of Cathays lie-flat business class – internally codenamed FB3 – is being shaped by Porsche Design Group but will be more of a measured advance on the airlines award-winning FB2 product. According to James Barrington, Cathay Pacifics Director of Corporate Development, big changes are no longer available in a business class seat, although we still try to put in place incremental changes. The product were going to put on the A350-900 and -1000 will be slightly different and slightly better than the Boeing 777-300ER, but the real differentiator will be the service proposition Barrington told Australian Business Traveller at an event to mark the airlines 40th anniversary of flying non-stop from Hong Kong to Sydney. We will be taking the existing product and making some enhancements that we think will make a difference to passengers, but those wont be revolutionary changes. As for first class, Barrington suggested that only some of the airlines 26-strong A350-1000 fleet will include the new suites while the rest of the planes will be outfitted in three classes (business, premium economy and economy). We wont have first class in the A350-900s, although weve ordered the Boeing 777-9X which will definitely have first class Barrington revealed. Now were looking at how many A350-1000s will have first class. There are clearly a small number of ultra-long haul markets with a high demand for first class such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and London Barrington added, drawing a comparison with Cathay Pacifics long-range Boeing 777-300ER jets – only some of which have first class. When we take take delivery of all our 777s, and theres 53 in all, I think 32 will have first class. We tailor the aircraft type to the market and the demand with a mixture of four-class and three-class aircraft. Cathays flights from Hong Kong to Vancouver, for example, use a four-class Boeing 777 if the service continues to New York but a three-class jet for the flight when terminates in Vancouver. Similarly, of the two daily flights to San Francisco, one includes first class while the other tops out at business class. You don’t want to find yourself turning away first class or business class demand Barrington said.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 10:00:16 +0000
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