Last October I shared the news that China Southern was planning on launching service to New York using one of their newly delivered 777-300ER aircraft.
Then in January the new 4x weekly service became official, and will launch on August 6, 2014.
Earlier this week China Southern took delivery of their first Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, and all things considered it looks like a sexy plane.
The new 777-300ER will be in a four class configuration. The layout will be as follows:
- Four first class suites in a 1-2-1 configuration
- 34 business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration
- 44 premium economy seats in a 2-4-2 configuration
- 227 economy seats in a 3-3-3 configuration
It’s worth noting that this will be China Southern’s first plane with a premium economy cabin — not even their A380s or new delivery 787s have a premium economy cabin. Also, it’s nice that they’re only doing nine seats per row in coach, while many carriers install ten seats per row.
That’s a fairly roomy plane with just 309 seats (some other airlines have over 400 seats on their 777-300ERs).
Per airchive.com, it appears as if China Southern also plans on installing Wi-Fi fleet wide, which is great news. Unfortunately there’s no timeline for that project, and the 777-300ERs aren’t being delivered with Wi-Fi.
Now, admittedly I have a hard time getting excited over flying China Southern after my experience in their A380 first class from Los Angeles to Guangzhou. That being said, they’re generally great about releasing award space, so are probably still a good option for redeeming Delta SkyMiles or Korean Air SkyPass miles, assuming the route makes sense for me. Their hard products are highly competitive, so as long as you board exhausted and stop by Chipotle and Vino Volo prior to boarding the flight in New York, you should be good to go. 😀
Hopefully the Boeing and China Southern executives had plenty of Duc de Paris sparkling wine to celebrate this momentous occasion. 😉
(Tip of the hat to Peter)
I am a bit surprised that China Southern decides to maintain the nine abreast economy class configuration! I wonder if it has anything to do with the proposed ultra long haul flights to JFK!
Anyway it looks nice and let hope China Southern can work on the soft ware now! Service!
I swear only you ever get excited about China Southern
@ Lucky - Freebirds started in California and that's where most locations are along with Texas. You are always in California so check it out -- I guarantee it will be better than CZ's food! :P
@ Ivan Y -- We have Chipotle and Qdoba, though I've never heard of Freebirds.
@ Lucky - do you guys not have Freebirds in Seattle or Tampa? Much better than Chipotle :D
Can we be sure they will be serving that $5 a bottle "shampagne"? ;)
I wouldn't get too excited about that Premium Economy product. They are using the same seat as AF. As someone who has suffered through the AF Y+ product, I would never pay to do that to myself again. It's really sad that AF, AZ and now CZ have all chosen a dedicated premium economy seat that is less comfortable than UA's Economy Plus (which is just regular economy seat with added pitch).
But Lucky, if there are only 4 seats, where will the crew, friends/relatives of the crew, and people willing to pay for a nap sleep?
@ Henry -- To clarify, I LOVE Chipotle (much like David).
@Henry
Clearly you've never had Chipotle's chicken burrito bowl, CZ's business class catering, or both.
If I fly them, I will have to buy my own Veuve at Duty Free...wonder if they would serve it to me?
after your report... no way. waste of miles, effort and time.
Saying an airport Chipotle is better than CZ business class catering is, I think, just a joke?
The food taste of this blogger is rather hard to imagine
Sorry, after taking a better look at the picture, it looks like it is 1-2-1
Is it 1-2-1 for first or just 2 rows of 2 seats? Thanks!
With only 4 F seats, I hope there's a crew rest area somewhere!