Air New Zealand unveils spacious new seat design

Air New Zealand new seat design

Air New Zealand has today revealed a new Economy seat design at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg to be introduced on the airline’s Airbus A320/A321neo fleet.

The airline has worked with UK aerospace seating company Acro Aircraft Seating on the slim-line design, a key feature of which is wider seats. The window and aisle seats will be one centimetre wider than those on the airline’s current international Airbus fleet, with the middle seat three centimetres wider ensuring a better sense of personal space across the row.

The design also features a new seat cover developed in conjunction with New Zealand company Flight Interiors which customer testing has demonstrated delivers superior comfort levels for longer.

Air New Zealand General Manager Customer Experience Anita Hawthorne says the design of the new seat was customer-led with the airline and Acro keen to address key areas of customer feedback and further improve the inflight experience.

- says Ms Hawthorne

“The slightly wider middle seat helps balance out the fact that window and aisle seat customers enjoy a greater sense of space. We currently have many customers who state a preference for window or aisle seats and it’s possible the new design may see the middle seat get a boost in popularity.

We have a long history of innovating and of thinking outside the box for solutions so we were fortunate to work alongside a likeminded partner such as Acro. We believe what we’ve co-designed is not only practical from an operational perspective but importantly a more comfortable and spacious experience for our customers,”

Air New Zealand has 13 Airbus A320neo aircraft on order to replace its current A320 fleet. The airline will receive a combination of A320neo and A321neo.