Air New Zealand’s Skynest sleep pods are in the running for a top global innovation award as the airline gets closer to a nose-to-tail overhaul of its longhaul aircraft cabins.
It has finalised how the four-hour economy class lie-flat sessions will run on flights and is zeroing in on what it will charge. While it’s not revealing any figures, travel agents expect a cost of about $400 to $600 for a four-hour session.
The six-passenger economy cabin sleeping pods were first unveiled just as the pandemic hit in 2020 and relaunched in the middle of last year. Skynest now has a hot chance of taking out a category in what’s dubbed the Oscars of airline innovation, the Crystal Cabin awards.
It is among finalists in the cabin innovation section, with the winner to be announced on June 6 in Hamburg.
The final Skynest prototype hasn’t yet been completed and is still awaiting safety certification, but the airline is confident they will be ready to fit into new Dreamliner aircraft scheduled to enter the fleet from the end of next year.
Air New Zealand’s head of airline programmes, Kerry Reeves, said Skynest and the airline’s new Business Premier Luxe were unique.
“We are pushing the boundaries of the innovation and sort of the ideas of what we can execute.”
The airline has carried out more than five years of research and development on Skynest and although the final version is still being built, it could be ready to take to travel shows such as the Hamburg event. It was close to completion and being built based on detailed engineering drawings.
The version unveiled last year is not transportable.
“The concept is proving pretty sound from an engineering and certification and how we operate it onboard the aircraft,” Reeves said.
Air New Zealand has not finally determined the price of a four-hour session in Skynest, a compact space which one travel agent says could be tricky for less mobile passengers to get in and out of.
The pods will initially be on aircraft flying Auckland-New York and Auckland-Chicago flights.
Reeves said the price would be driven by demand, and arriving at a figure was part of what was an experiment because it was a new product.
“We’ve got an idea in our head based on the feedback but as we know, what people say isn’t always backed up by behaviour,” he said.
“Once it becomes more known about, then the demand will increase. There’s limited capacity and that’s obviously going to drive the price. It’s hard to know what that will be.”
Operating the New York route since last September and the resumption of flying to Chicago had allowed the airline to monitor passenger behaviour, and more of them are booking Skycouch, a row of three seats where it is possible to lie down.
“The interesting thing is that on those routes, Skycouch is in substantially increased demand,” said Reeves. “We thought that might happen, but pleasingly, people want some additional flexibility on their flying experience at an affordable rate.”
He said recent research and testing of Skynest had validated earlier assumptions and four hours was a “sweet spot” for a session.
There will be a maximum of six people, and children under 12 won’t be able to use the sleeping areas.
“Each group will then be given an indication by the crew that their session is about to start, will get a brief from the crew, which is very short but it just gives them a sense of what to do if something happens while they’re in there,” said Reeves.
“At the end of the four hours there’ll be a gentle increasing of the light levels over a few minutes and then people will be woken up if they’re not already woken up.”
New linen will be put on the beds in time for the next session.
Reeves said the airline was confident there would be a sufficient buffer between sessions. There would be three to four such sessions on flights to New York and Chicago, which can be 17 hours long.
Helloworld general manager (NZ), Chris Hunter, said Skynest made sense for the airline as another revenue stream and a way of differentiating itself from its competitors.
“The cost of designing, developing and installing Skynest could be high, and this may translate into higher ticket prices for travellers. I am unsure where this is being positioned price-wise, however I would expect it to sit in the $400-$600 price range for a four-hour sleep option,” he said.
Hunter said passengers needed to understand that they would have less privacy than in the more expensive business class cabin and he said crew may find servicing Skynest challenging.
“The product will likely have appeal for those guests who are looking to take advantage of the ability to lie down, rest and get their feet up at a price point that is more affordable than committing to a full-service business-class experience.”
Managing director of Fortis Travel, Blair Huston, said Skynest would be popular. It was difficult to price a session but it could be in the vicinity of $500.
He found the beds long enough but they were tight across the shoulders and could be difficult for the elderly or less limber.
Reeves said the airline did not have fixed dates, but expects to take delivery of the first two specially fitted out Boeing 787 Dreamliners in the last part of next year, although it is mindful of delays the aeroplane builder is suffering.
“That seems like a long way away but there’s a lot to achieve in a short timeframe here, especially something that’s not been done before,” he said.
“We’re continuing to go at pace to make sure that we give ourselves opportunity for something we discover on the way and rectify.”
The airline was working with regulators at every step.
It is working through the European Union Safety Agency (which has similar authority as the FAA in the US) because of its experience with Airbus sleeping pod proposals and beds on corporate jets. Final sign-off rests with New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority, and this comes when the units are finally fitted into the aircraft.
Because passengers weren’t using Skynest during takeoff and landing, it faces different safety criteria than seats.
“We don’t have to have restraint systems that meet 16G requirements. All the crash loads of the unit itself don’t have to meet those requirements,” said Reeves. “It’s turbulence loads only, so that helps simplify the structure.”
But the units had to be integrated into the aircraft’s air conditioning and safety systems, which added to complexity.
They would be made out of aviation composite core, the same material that is used on bulkheads and partitions.
The units would be made overseas because there is not the specialised aircraft cabin manufacturing capability here.
Air New Zealand is spending $3 billion on new planes, including eight Dreamliners, during the next five years. In its interim financial result, it said $450 million would also be spent on refurbishing the 14 Dreamliners already in its fleet. That work would be done overseas and Reeves said the airline hoped to refit the planes with new interiors within a two-year period.
The airline’s new cabins will have fewer seats and be more premium-heavy to cater for strong demand for the front of the plane, where yields are higher. When operating very long flights to places such as New York, it faces operational constraints on the number of passengers it can carry.
Aircraft on ultra-longhaul routes will have 219 seats, including eight Business Premier Luxe suites which have more space and privacy, with a sliding door.
The airline’s existing Business Premier seats are outdated, lack privacy and storage compared to standard business class.
Reeves said it was time to move on from the existing layout, although the seats were good for sleeping.
“As much as people prefer more privacy, the sleep experience that you get from our current seats is still spot-on.”
Fortis Travel’s Huston said the existing herringbone layout was well past its use-by date.
With limited availability of the Luxe seats, he believed the airline could charge a premium of more than $1000 a person over and above fares for the rest of business class.
The summer expansion sees two new aircraft and a demand for more Aussie destinations.