Air New Zealand has unveiled its new cabin interior featuring ‘Business Premier’ seats designed and manufactured with Safran Seats. They are due to enter in service in 2024, with the airline retrofitting its current 787-9 fleet.

Air New Zealand said it selected a concept to create a ‘home away from home’ experience. In co-creation with Safran Seats, the seat is specifically designed for 787 aircraft and to maximise the available space in this aircraft type.

The cabin will feature a herringbone configuration and a private environment for the passenger, with high shells combined with adjustable aisle and centre dividers. Passengers have plenty of personal stowage areas as well as multiple surfaces including an electrically assisted large singlepiece meal table, according to the companies.

“We really encouraged Safran to think differently and push the boundaries with what we can do with the Business Premier seat to optimise the configuration and customer experience,” said Air New Zealand’s head of aircraft programmes Kerry Reeves. “Working virtually throughout Covid added another layer of complexity. Without being able to travel to the Safran site to validate our ideas and concepts, we paralleled the mock-up build both in New Zealand at our innovation lab and at Safran 2 to ensure we had a common design interpretation and valid feedback on the engineering development of the layout and features.”

Safran Seats’ CEO Vincent Mascré commented: “We are pleased to provide Air New Zealand with a product that meets their needs to offer choice and a product dedicated to ultra-long haul flight. These seats are the fruit of incredible work between our companies and it will allow a better journey for all their passengers. The creation of this seat displays the remarkable capabilities between Air New Zealand and the experienced Safran Seats teams based in United Kingdom.”