Page 22 - AAA MARCH - APRIL 2018 Online Magazine

CLASS OF THE FUTURE

There is a positive demand for premium of passengers sitting at the back.” Since that report
economy from customers travelling for many airlines have rolled out premium economy as
business as well as leisure travellers who marketing executives sense the growing need for
the class and a realization that it will be filled with
do not wish to spend on premium classes economy passengers desperate for a little space

and separation. Skift rightly points out that, Premium
Geoffrey Thomas
Economy is not one product but two distinct prod-
t seems extraordinary that a class of travel that ucts, each of which works according to the airline
delivers so much in the value/comfort equation model to which it is applied and to the cabin con-
has taken so long to takeoff from airline’s board figuration in which it is used. It quotes one of the
Iroom tables. Perhaps it has been the fear that industry’s leader cabin designers, Nigel Goode,
business class passengers would migrate back that Co-Founder of Priestmangoode, of London. “There
has caused angst in senior management but per- are two different approaches to Premium Economy
haps if some of those levels of upper management seating,” Goode told Skift. “And that is important to
had spent more time in economy class then maybe note. European airlines offer a different seat entirely;
premium economy would have come around a lot whereas, in America, Economy Plus is more likely
sooner. Certainly, over the past ten years, legacy to be the same seat with more space—it’s not so
carriers have been forced to put the squeeze on much of a difference in products, but in space and
economy, - such as 10-across on the B777 and 9 services.”
across on the B787 - to combat the low-cost airlines The US’s slow take up of premium economy is
which has opened the door to the need for premium surprising in one sense - and yet not in another. One
economy. would have thought in the world’s wealthiest country,
that touts choice above all else, there would be a
No Holding Back Now myriad of choices, particularly in premium classes
According to a 2014 report The Future of the Aircraft yet the lack of choice on US airlines beggar’s belief.
Cabin produced by Skift, the aviation industry has An excellent example is the world’s second biggest
been “stuck in the past, holding on to antiquated airline Delta Air Lines which is only now introducing
concepts of cabin configurations…. and this thinking a true premium economy on its A350s, although it
has only served to form resentment in the majority has been selling, like American and United, an

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