Air New Zealand has announced that they'll first introduce the 787-9 on their route between Auckland and Perth as of October 15, 2014. Air New Zealand's 787-9 will feature a total of 302 seats, including 18 Business Premier seats, 21 Premium Economy seats, and 263 Economy Class seats, including 14 Skycouch rows. By the end…
Continue reading: Air New Zealand Unveils Boeing 787-9 Details
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Love NZ and the country as well. But AirNZ has gone downhill in several ways recently.
It looks like NZ's 787 seating will not be as good as on their 77W in all classes.
Business seats slightly shorter, and appear to be at higher angle to the forward direction thus likely also slightly narrower. IFE screens are smaller.
Premium economy backwards step from space seats to marginally better than economy seats.
Economy has reduced pitch 31-32" and increased recline (5") - so difficult to watch the IFE or work in the seat, and if passenger in front reclines you will need to as well.
Seems to be narrow seats and aisles in both economy and premium economy.
On the plus side at least 767 (with poor business class and no premium economy) finally stops on the long Shanghai and Tokyo flights.
This will be a huge improvement over the 767 torture chambers they currently use on some of their Asia to AKL routes. NZ's 767 business class seats are easily the worst in the world.
I actually liked the 767, was on it a few days ago in Y. My knees never touched the back of the seat in front of me, 33" was the pitch. I thought the seat was more comfortable than the A320 and had a fair bit of back support.
Also Lucky I think the reason for no Spaceseat on 787 is revenue-based - couldn't fit 2-3-2 with previous design due to unique structure. If I recall correctly, Spaceseat was designed especially *for* 787 but was brought on to 777 due to 787 delivery delays. Seems strange not to have it on what it was specifically designed for! Skycouch kind of forced 3-3-3 layout - would be strange having 3-2-3 to keep 3-seat blocks and no-one would fork out extra if Skycouch was a block of 4! (In a 2-4-2 layout scenario)
If I'm not mistaken, the great circle route from Perth to Auckland takes the aircraft further south, correct? Why does this map show the route curving north?
The Premium Economy has been degraded actually. It's not because of the width of the aircraft. The Spaceseat work in a 2-2-2 configuration on the 777. With 2-3-2, they have actually downgraded their product to fit in more seats.