Air New Zealand premieres its new Business Premier seats made by Safran

This week, Air New Zealand unveiled its brand new cabin interior featuring its latest Business Premier seats, designed and manufactured with Safran Seats. They are due to enter in service in 2024 and retrofit their current 787-9 fleet to give passengers ‘the best sleep in the sky’.

Air New Zealand selected a concept to create a ‘home away from home’ experience. In co-creation with Safran Seats, this seat is specifically designed for 787 aircraft with no compromise, maximizing the available space in this aircraft type. They present two choices within the business premier cabin:

The Business Premier seat offers a comfortable and private nest for a blissful journey and tranquil sleep. If traveling with a companion, the middle row allows customers to open their nest and share their experience.

The herringbone configuration of the cabin creates an equal experience for all passengers and ensures a better sleep with the head of passengers being far from the aisle. A private environment for the passenger with high shells combined with adjustable aisle and center dividers contributes to a restful flight. Passengers have plenty of personal stowage areas that are certified for Taxi, Take off and Landing (TTL) as well as multiple surfaces including an electrically assisted large singlepiece meal table.

Over and above the many traditional features, this suite takes flight wireless charging and with an active backrest offering the passenger another way to manage their personal comfort, certified for variable TTL positions.

The Business Premier Luxe is made for the best sleep in the sky. Air New Zealand’s new offering is for customers looking for space and privacy. A luxury experience with all the features of Business Premier, but with a fully closing door and space for two people to dine.

This premium front row is offered across multiple Safran products in which the layout replaces the traditional front row monuments to provide the utmost privacy and space to the passenger whilst maintaining the same footprint. This also provides new and enhanced experiences such as welcoming a ‘buddy’ into your suite. For Air New Zealand, this increases the useable space for the passenger by 25%.

Air New Zealand Head of Aircraft Programmes Kerry Reeves says, “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. 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.”

Vincent Mascré, CEO of Safran Seats, states: "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".