Page 10 - AAA SEPTEMBER - OCOTBER 2017 Online Magazine

COVER STORY CABINS

Value Proposition

Cabin offerings need to be continuously reimagined to meet changing expectations
By Geoffrey Thomas and Steve Creedy

on the deliverY Flight oF the First premium airlines have been way too slow to Skycouch. And rather than just a handful
Boeing 777-300 in 1997, I had the opportunity adopt mid-priced seating products that can of PY seats its Boeing 777-300ERs have 44
to spend an hour with then Cathay Pacific significantly raise revenue. premium economy seats – more than SQ,
Airways Chairman the late Peter Sutch It would be another 15 years (2012) before Qantas or CX fit to their aircraft.
discussing class warfare. We were seated in Cathay Pacific introduced PY and for Qantas
an empty economy cabin with a bottle of fine 11 years (2008). And Singapore Airlines was A Change in Preferences
red and tossed about the virtues - or not - of a very late adopter, only adding the class in Even slower off the mark is long haul
premium economy – a class then in its infancy. 2015. Singapore Airlines resisted the trend champion Emirates and it and some of its
My pitch, being 174cm in height, was there arguing to the author, several times, that middle east competitors are now scrambling
was a need? and that economy passengers its economy class was as good as premium to develop a new PY to increase revenue. Last
would upgrade. Sutch liked the concept and economy which of course it was not. But year Emirates’ chairman and chief executive,
asked me to develop a submission which better late than never; the airline has added Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum,
was duly completed. But despite Sutch’s PY to its A380s, A350s and 19 Boeing 777- lamented that “the bleak global economic
enthusiasm his commercial department 300ERs. Its PY product is excellent and the outlook appears to be the new norm, with
feared that rather than Y going up to PY, C seats are set at 38-inches, with eight inches no immediate resolution in sight.” But the
would come down and destroy the airline’s of recline, with a width of 18.5 to 19.5 inches warning signs have been there for a while
cash cow Business Class. The same pitch of width (depending on the aircraft). All suggests Sir Tim Clark Emirates President.
was made to then Qantas CEO James Strong these Asia/Pacific airlines were prompted “I see a change in the way corporate business
who voiced the same concerns. The reality by the experience of Air New Zealand which is going to develop which of course will
is however, that everyone wants a reason to added the class from 2005 and quickly had affect our yields because the high-end stuff
upgrade and virtually no-one wants to down to expand the number of seats. That airline isn’t going to come through as it was in the
grade. And the other reality is that the airline appears to have hit the sweet spot with its good old days,” Clark, told International Air
executives making these decisions rarely offering with Business Premier, Premium Transport Association (IATA) at the 2016 AGM
travel in the back of the bus and thus many Economy and Economy with the famous in Dublin. He noted that while passenger

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