Qantas to roll out more premium economy seats

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This was published 13 years ago

Qantas to roll out more premium economy seats

By Andrew Heasley
Qantas premium economy seats.

Qantas premium economy seats.

Qantas is making good on its promise to introduce more premium economy seats to more flights — today announcing it would retrofit six jumbos each with 40 premium economy seats for the Tokyo and Frankfurt routes.

So-called "premium economy" was introduced to shore up the lucrative business sector that was seeing corporate travel budgets being cut back during the global financial crisis.

Less than a fortnight ago, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told The Age the airline would expand premium economy availability: "With the configuration changes that we're doing, we're going to grow the premium economy cabin by 26 per cent and that's an initiative that we believe will also improve the yield mix and the premium traffic."

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It's a half-way house between the opulence of business class and the relative confinement of economy, and has proven popular with executives on tight budgets and affluent families.

“Qantas first introduced 'premium economy' in 2008 and customer feedback for the product has been extremely positive," Mr Joyce said. "Our customers enjoy priority check-in, dedicated cabin crew, an additional baggage allowance and priority boarding and disembarkation."

Premium economy offers essentials for business-lite travellers, such as laptop power, and larger seats with more elbow and leg room (23cm seat recline and up to 100cm seat pitch), as well as niceties such as a fancier menu with premium wines and a self-service bar.

The seats are located near the middle of the plane, between business and economy, and have their own cabin crew servicing the area.

The extra seats come at the expense of fewer, cheaper economy seats however.

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The three-class Boeing 747s will start operating on the Tokyo route from October 10, with premium-economy fares starting from $1999. Economy costs from $1586 for the same date.

The Frankfurt three-class services start from February 3, with premium economy fares starting from $3999. Economy costs from $2096 for the same date.

Andrew Heasley is The Age's Aviation Reporter

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