Azul Brazilian Airlines is teasing a new premium economy experience. This might just be the world’s best premium economy product, though there is a major catch…
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Azul takes premium economy to the next level
Pontos pra Voar flags how Azul is promoting a new long haul premium economy product, which will be named Economy Prime. This cabin will consist of seats in a 2-2-2 configuration, and the seats feature significant recline, way more than you’ll find in most premium economy cabins nowadays.
Azul hasn’t revealed any additional details about this product, including what additional services will be offered with it. Note that up until now, Azul hasn’t offered a premium economy product on long haul flights, but rather has just offered an extra legroom economy section.
My first impression is of course very positive, as I imagine most people would be delighted to have this as their premium economy seat. Over the years, we’ve seen premium products improve considerably. For example, many business class products nowadays are as good as first class was a decade or two ago. Is Azul leading the way here, and now making premium economy as good as business class was a decade or two ago? Well, there’s a major catch…
Azul is just rebranding cabins on secondhand A330-900neos
For better or worse, Azul isn’t actually doing much innovating here, and I don’t think the airline is intending to take premium economy to the next level. Rather, the airline is just trying to save money on reconfiguring secondhand jets that it’s picking up.
You see, Azul will soon be expanding its Airbus A330-900neo fleet by taking delivery of two former Thai AirAsia X jets (this comes as the airline is dumping its Airbus A350-900s). These are expected to be in service in the coming months, flying on long haul routes, like Viracopos (VCP) to Orlando (MCO).
These secondhand A330-900neos have super dense cabins, featuring 367 seats. This includes 12 premium economy seats (in a 2-2-2 configuration), which Thai AirAsia X markets as “Premium Flatbed.” These A330-900neos also have a staggering 365 seats in economy (in a 3-3-3 configuration).
Suffice it to say that this will be much less comfortable than Azul’s standard A330-900neo configuration, featuring 298 seats, including 34 business class seats (in a 1-2-1 configuration) and 264 economy seats (in a 2-4-2 configuration).
Azul is simply selling these premium economy seats as an upgrade option from any economy ticket, rather than as a fully separate class of service. You can assign these seats for an extra $500 per segment, as flagged by @AirlineFlyer. The bigger takeaway here should be just how uncomfortable these Azul A330s will be in economy.
Bottom line
Azul is introducing a new Economy Prime cabin on select international flights. While this looks like the world’s best premium economy product, in reality the airline is just trying to save money on reconfiguring the planes that it’s acquiring, so this cabin will be offered in lieu of business class.
I wouldn’t expect to see this cabin on anything other than the two former Thai AirAsia X A330-900neos that will soon join Azul’s fleet. And if you’re not in one of these seats, I’d highly recommend avoiding these A330-900neos, given the nine seats per row in economy.
What do you make of Azul’s new Economy Prime?
3-3-3 economy in an A330? i think i'd rather try to swim.
It is ironic that Azul unveils this new product while they show little attention /care to their premium passengers (and all passengers in general). They have simply canceled direct flights from a few cities in Brazil (mostly in the Northeast) to Florida for 3 entire months.
All those flights are direct flights (under 8 hours) and have always a high occupancy rate. Is there a lack of equipment? Whatever is going on, it is...
It is ironic that Azul unveils this new product while they show little attention /care to their premium passengers (and all passengers in general). They have simply canceled direct flights from a few cities in Brazil (mostly in the Northeast) to Florida for 3 entire months.
All those flights are direct flights (under 8 hours) and have always a high occupancy rate. Is there a lack of equipment? Whatever is going on, it is causing a lot of problems (you definetly choose direct flights for a reason) and they have accommodated all existing passengers with bookings adding 4 to 7 hours of travel in the process. It is really disastrous customer service and shows it is time for another airline to link this dynamic part of Brazil to the USA. It is probably worth finding out what's going on at Azul.
It looks like the seat pitch needs to be significantly larger than the standard 38” for premium economy seats on most airlines.
Whenever you read AZUL or Neeleman in one sentence, you should be sceptical...
He would have been a good replacement for Al Baker.
@OMAAT
For real?
Are you sure to give credit to Azul, and take away credit from AirAsia X (D7).
It's obviously is an AirAsia group order heading for Thai AirAsia X (XJ), but the group were already operating this config on their A330-300, shouldn't they get the credit?
Or is there a reason AirAsia X product isn't the same category as Azul.
Eskimo. I believe this seat originated with Virgin Atlantic around 1999/2000. Should he give credit to Virgin? If I recall correctly, as everyone jumped to the coffin class business seat, this particular seat fell out of favor fast and Thai Asia picked it up as a cheap offering for a premium cabin.
Reading comprehension Jordan.
VS doesn't operate a low-cost model and market the seat as business/upper class. Nor does this seat has anything to do with VS.
The AirAsia X seat is a B/E minipod, which I believe VS never used them. So no credit to VS either under your broken logic.
But then again I can't blame you for not knowing with your half understanding. You forgot half of the airline name by calling "Thai Asia", which also doesn't exist.
Reading comprehension.
So, lie-flat Premium Economy huh? This is basically the exact opposite (the "yin and yang" if you will) of European airlines taking the first few rows of Economy, blocking the middle seats, and calling it "Business Class".
In LATAM and GOL, the first few rows are similar to those of European airlines (blocking the middle sea) and they call Premium Economy. The service is also better than the service in Economy.
Azul is already showing those seats between VCP-MCO for May.
This flight won´t feature a proper business class cabin.. instead, we will have economy prime on a 2-2-2 configuration on rows 1 e 2.
The cost for that is around 2500 BRL (more or less 500 usd) one way over economy. However, they seem to still be making adjustments because i could not get to the payment screen despite trying on many dates.
Azul is already showing those seats between VCP-MCO for May.
This flight won´t feature a proper business class cabin.. instead, we will have economy prime on a 2-2-2 configuration on rows 1 e 2.
The cost for that is around 2500 BRL (more or less 500 usd) one way over economy. However, they seem to still be making adjustments because i could not get to the payment screen despite trying on many dates.
There´s no way to buy directly into that cabin, You need to buy an economy ticket and pay for a seat assignmenton economy prime.