All Nippon Airways will explore further cabin product upgrades – including for its medium-haul operations – as it acknowledges a “competitive” market in passenger experience.
The airline’s executive vice president of customer experience Keiji Omae says ANA has not made a decision on a new medium-haul cabin product yet.
Omae was speaking to FlightGlobal in Tokyo, where ANA held a public showcase of its new long-haul products to be installed on incoming Boeing 787-9s from this year.
He notes that competition on premium cabin products has been increasing in recent years. “The competition has been very fierce among not only the European [and] Middle East carriers, but also the Asian carriers. More recently, the US major carriers have also made huge investments to upgrade their products,” Omae notes.
A key feature of the product upgrade is ‘The Room FX’ business-class seat, developed in partnership with French manufacturer Safran Seats and British design company Acumen.
First unveiled at the Paris air show, ‘The Room FX’ is based on ANA’s existing long-haul business-class product called ‘The Room’, which is already flying on its 777-300ERs.
It comes fitted with privacy doors and is “significantly wider” than the existing long-haul 787 seats, with ANA making use of alternating front- and rear-facing seat configurations.
There will also be new seats in premium economy and economy classes, both of which are manufactured by Recaro.
ANA expects to take delivery of its first 787-9 line-fit with the new products this year, with another two to be delivered.
In 2027, the airline begin to retrofit 13 older 787-9s with the new products.
Omae declines to state where the new product will be deployed to, except to confirm it will be on routes to Europe and North America.
