Popular aircraft seating manufacturer Collins Aerospace has just revealed its newest business class product, designed specifically for narrow body aircraft. This is a big focus in the aircraft seating industry, given that we’re increasingly seeing longer range narrow body jets, like the Airbus A321XLR.
Continue reading: Collins Aerospace Aurora: Business Class Suite For Single Aisle Jets
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
As a “passenger of size” I have no idea how I’ll fit through the seat door and contort myself backwards. Never mind wedging myself out from that coffin thin seat. This development is kinda sad for me. Now I’m realizing I prefer the old Turkish and Lufthansa business class more.
I understand the commercial reasons for extended range single isle airplanes. Personally I am and will continue more so avoiding them like the plague for anything longer than ~6hours in flight. Find them cramped, uncomfortable. Seat arrangements are always a disadvantage compared to wide bodies, lavatories are cramped, fewer and size restricted galley. Just feels like a big step backwards for air travel in every way.
The collins seat and herringbone orientation is claustrophobic, looks very narrow. Seated away from the isle, reaching for drinks/food, orienting your crotch towards the flight attendant, no thank you. No 321LR/XLR, hopefully most airlines wont buy them and keep their narrowbodies for shorter flights only.
Maybe next generation planes with wing integrated design allow more space and a different setup - 1-1-1 twin isle with 2-3-2 eco. F can then be 1-1.
If a widebody has a 1+2+1 configuration in J, why cannot the same seats be used in a 1+1 configuration on a narrowbody, just leave the center seats out?
Cabin width shouldn't be an issue as a narrowbody has 3+3 seats in Y and a widebody 8 or 9, so there should be more than enough space. What am I missing here?
I've got flashbacks to the Cathay 747 UD business class....that's not a good thing.
Looks tight...and I don't see a comfortable location to place a drink without trapping myself with the tray.
Looks like a long term mistake is about to be thrust upon us.
Good argument . . . but i think, you will see A LOT more narrowbody planes going all over with new and fancy Business product, incl. such seating options, as it's easier to market such things.
More and more airlines increase frequencies on exactly the routes these planes can fly and they need to compete with big rivals, ONLY airline i know that still could feg away with NO real Business Class yet is Icelandair . . . i bet, they have to move forward soon too!
So those 321LR/XLR will be the big future of airlines around the globe, i think you need to get used to that? . . . just like i'm finding it harder and harder to go to certain places as ONLY 738MAX planes go there, so i avoid such destinations.
Traveling used to be so easy 😉 Not anymore.
Could not agree more. Will be interesting to see if most people share this opinion and Airlines start seeing some struggle to sell 6+ hour flights on narrow bodies when there are also wide bodies on the same route.
My first reaction was that I would prefer reverse herringbone. But a comment in the article about increased privacy being by the window resonated with me. The more I think about it, the more I like being able to see the cabin in general which facing "out" brings. It's not unlike I prefer to sit in restaurants with my back to the wall and have my home office set up with my back to a wall or corner looking into the room and toward the door.
I really hope that this (and the other narrow-body herringbone model) fails, and that most airlines pick the reverse herringbone options. Recently flew the new Jetblue Mint ”suites”, and wasn’t impressed. I just can’t relax in the herringbone layout, and I don’t get why they’re suddently becoming popular again after being phased out and replaced by reverse herringbone seats.
Sadly, most travelers seem seem to want high frequency of service more than more comfortable service, so less frequent widebody service is being replaced by higher frequency narrowbody service. I don't like it any more than Name does but I fear that is our future.
I don’t like these coffins they are installing. Privacy is great but this looks claustrophobic. I love seeing pics of old FC on the 747 - all that open space!
At first glance, these look even tighter and more claustrophobic than the Virgin Atlantic "coffin" seats 🙁 Doesn't look very appealing to me.
Feels claustrophobic. The window is behind the passenger so you have to turn your head awkwardly to look out. To me the best show on the road is out the window.
Space per passenger shouldn't really change just because it's a wide VS narrow body.
However, one real issue to raise is that the A321Neo is slower than thevwidebodies and sits on M0.77 for cruise with a Vno of 0.82. Meanwhile, a 787-8 sits on M0.85 with a Vno of M0.90. The 757\767s speed sits in between the two.
So you're looking at flights being 10% longer if replacing a 787 and 5% longer when replacing 757/767s