STELIA Aerospace is an aircraft seating manufacturer that’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Airbus. The company has just unveiled its newest business class product, which offers a flat bed with direct aisle access for airlines on a budget, or airlines that care about the environment, or something like that. It’s an intriguing concept, and I’m curious which airlines end up selecting this seat…
STELIA Aerospace’s new “basic” business class seat
I’ve written before about STELIA Aerospace’s OPERA product, which is essentially a reverse herringbone seat intended specifically for Airbus narrow body aircraft, including the upcoming Airbus A321XLR.
The company has now introduced a new version of this seat. Here’s how the company describes the inspiration behind this concept:
This pioneering solution sets a new standard for sustainability in aviation while continuously delivering unparalleled comfort and luxury to passengers.
The aeronautics industry stands on the cusp of transformative change, bracing itself for significant challenges in the imminent future as it confronts the imperative of climate change. Embracing this shift and breaking new grounds, STELIA Aerospace presents a revolutionary concept — a sustainable, entirely autonomous seat, responsive to the passenger’s movements.
This new product is designed around four pillars — mass optimization, streamlined electrical components, and incorporation of recycled and recyclable materials, all while upholding the luxurious comfort of a business class seat.
The most revolutionary change here is that the seat includes the removal of the electrical actuator and ECU. So seat movement isn’t controlled by anything electronic, but rather the seat moves based on the passenger’s movement.
With the elimination of most electrical components in the seat, this is one of the lightest weight business class seats out there, which of course helps contribute to reduced maintenance costs, reduced fuel burn, and improved aircraft range. The seat is 30% lighter than the “standard” STELIA OPERA product.
As you’ll see in the below pictures, this product also includes the elimination of fixed, built-in TV screens, and instead boasts portable entertainment.
Below you can see a video that shows the seat’s movements based on passenger inputs.
Which airline would select this seat?
STELIA Aerospace’s new seat is unique, because we haven’t seen many premium fully flat seats that can move, but without a motorized function. Finnair’s business class is known for similarly not having most electrical functions, but what makes it different is that the seat doesn’t recline, but rather you can just raise a legrest to create a bed.
While I understand this is a cost saving initiative, I actually don’t mind the concept of manual recline, assuming it works well. So many electrical seats are quite loud when being adjusted, and that process also sometimes takes way too long. If this can be done efficiently, I’m all for it.
Now, the lack of built-in inflight entertainment as a standard is an interesting direction to take. Up until now, just about all airlines with flat bed and direct aisle access business class have built-in inflight entertainment. The only exception I can think of is ZIPAIR Full Flat, which is a reverse herringbone product without seat back entertainment. However, that’s also not even marketed as business class.
I’m curious what kind of airline STELIA Aerospace is targeting with this. Would full service airlines select this seat, or is this a product that the company hopes some budget carriers with a premium cabin would introduce? What makes this trickier is that it’s intended as a narrow body business class seat, which limits the potential customer base.
Bottom line
STELIA Aerospace has unveiled its newest narrow body business class product, which is the OPERA ESSENTIAL seat. This is based on the standard OPERA product, except it’s much more budget-friendly in terms of weight, maintenance costs, electrical components, etc.
Only time will tell which airline selects this product. Obviously airlines love lower cost options, though how will passengers react to the concept of manual recline?
What do you make of the STELIA Aerospace OPERA ESSENTIAL product?
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