JAL rolls out new Dreamliner cabins on international routes

Japan Airlines will roll out new aircraft and cabin products across a series of international routes this year.

From June 2015, the airline will start deploying its new fleet of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners with its Sky Suite cabins, offering 44 fully-flat beds in business class, a new premium economy section with 35 seats, and 116 wider seats in economy class.

This means that in total, the larger B787-9s will feature just 195 seats across the three classes, making it among the most spacious of any twin-aisle aircraft in the skies. It will retain the 2-4-2 economy class seating configuration adopted on the 161-seat B787-8s.

The B787-9 will make its international debut on the Tokyo Narita-Jakarta route from 1 July 2015, marking one of a series of Dreamliner deployments planned by JAL this year. The airline’s B787-8s with Sky Suite cabins will also be rolled out on the Narita-Paris and Narita-Delhi routes from 29 March, and on the Narita-Helsinki route from 1 June.

The Sky Suite business class cabins feature fully-flat beds
The Sky Suite business class cabins feature fully-flat beds
B787-8s with standard cabin configurations will also be rolled out on the Tokyo Haneda-Bangkok, Haneda-Ho Chi Minh City, Narita-Ho Chi Minh City, Haneda-Beijing, Haneda-Seoul Gimpo, and Osaka-Taipei routes from 29 March.

Also from this date, JAL will increase the number of B787-8 flights on the Narita-Moscow route from three to four per week, while the Narita-Frankfurt route will be upgraded to the larger B777-300ER aircraft. Some routes will see capacity reductions however, including Narita-Sydney, Haneda-Taipei and Osaka-Shanghai.

JAL’s Sky Suites are being progressively rolled out across the airline’s international fleet of B767s, B777s and B787s.

How the world’s Boeing 787-9s compare

The mid-sized version of the Dreamliner series, the Boeing 787-9 was designed to handle approximately 280 passengers in a standard two-class configuration, and has a maximum permitted capacity of 420 seats. So JAL’s 195-seat version is very spacious. In comparison, Etihad Airways’ new B787-9 offers 235 seats in three classes, while Air New Zealand’s has 302 seats. Low-cost carrier Scoot is expected to fit its new B787-9s with 375 seats in a two-class layout.

sourced:traveldailymedia.com