Air New Zealand tests beds for economy passengers

Capsule hotel on wings.

Brilliant idea ... if the premium to be paid is reasonable to some economy passangers.

The idea is that the pods sit in the economy class cabin and passengers pre-book sessions in them to break up long-haul flights, rather than occupying them for the entire journey.

Agree with yamada - brilliant idea! Makes a big difference if you can stretch out for a short time.

How long is a session? Even just 10 minutes would be a help.

Do you get fresh seats for your turn?

Why not have two or even three tiers stacked on top of each other? Then they could get just as many passengers as with seats and ticket prices would be the same. Some Vietnamese long distance buses do this and they are really, really comfortable.

The volume it will take to install capsules and lounge space needed to have a comfortable stretches, how many capsules would it be possible to fit to 737 ?

It would be my dream for long flights.

OK, here's the limiting factor in installing capsules and bunks in planes and has been for some time. . . . .

FAA and and European Aviation Safety Agency require that all passengers must be able to evacuate an aircraft cabin in under 90 seconds, if the aircraft seats more than 45 people.

At present there are concerns that some aircraft layouts (eg LCC that squeeze the seat sizes) may be close to breaching these rules as they cram more passengers into smaller spaces with less room to move around obstacles. To add to this, the average American passenger weight has increased by 10lb since 1999. ie, people are bigger and the spaces are smaller.

Now add to that, in an emergency situation people trying to get down from bunks, on top of other people trying to get down from bunks, on top of people running past bunks, and you can see what a recipe for disaster (literally) this is.

Air NZ has thought their way around this by making the capsules/bunks available for hire for periods of time while they are in the air, but I can almost guarantee they will not be occupied during take off and landing. Judging by the size of the picture I have seen (triple stacked) they will occupy the space of around 12 standard seats. So if you divide the costs this by the loss of 12 economy passengers by six bunks, add a premium for the ability to lie flat for a few hours, I can't see this being a cheap add on to their long haul tickets.

This looks like it will compete directly with Air NZs own SkyCouch offering , which is available for a USD300-800 premium in Economy. This gets you three Economy seats in a row which can all fold flat into a single large seat.

Pictures available here:

https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/air-new-zealand-skynest-economy-bed-flights-012723283.html

FAA and and European Aviation Safety Agency require that all passengers must be able to evacuate an aircraft cabin in under 90 seconds, 

The aisles is where the flow gets bogged down. Both configurations need not change the aisle size or accessibility. Anyway, flying is statistically so safe nowadays that such stringent rules - which make life miserable for millions of passengers each year - are obsolete and need to be chucked out.

JeffLee

Anyway, flying is statistically so safe nowadays that such stringent rules - which make life miserable for millions of passengers each year - are obsolete and need to be chucked out.

I have to totally disagree with you on this. These stringent rules are precisely the reason that flying IS so safe. 95% of occupants survive aircraft accidents, with over 55% surviving the most serious ones.

Mass evacuations of aircraft occur near daily somewhere on the globe for many reasons (smoke, hydraulic issues, fire or other concerns with or aboard the aircraft). Without these regulations people wouldn't be able to evacuate to safety in a timely manner, or be trampled in the process.

Safety above all.