Air New Zealand unveiled its Economy Skynest, a concept that seeks to bring bunk beds to economy class. While no doubt innovative, is the product practical?
The new beds would be at least 200cm (~79 inches) long and 58cm (~23 inches) wide. Each Economy Skynest would contain six sleeping pods and includes full-size pillow, sheets and blanket, ear plugs, privacy curtains, and lighting designed for sleep.
Air New Zealand claims the source of the project was addressing tight space on longhaul flights. Chief Marketing and Customer Officer Mike Tod said:
“We have a tremendous amount of development work underway looking at product innovations we can bring across all cabins of the aircraft. A clear pain point for economy travellers on long-haul flights is the inability to stretch out. The development of the Economy Skynest is a direct response to that challenge.”
Since these are stationary beds (very similar to crew rest beds), not seats that fold into beds, passengers will not be able to occupy these seats for the entirety of the flight. Instead, Air New Zealand plans to offer these in addition to an economy class seat, likely on a more limited basis.
I can imagine Air New Zealand selling these seats in hourly blocks, much like the sleep pods that are popping up at airports around the world.
Air New Zealand will make a final decision on whether to even offer the Economy Skynest next year after it has assessed the performance of its new Auckland-New York service, set to begin in October 2020. That means we won’t see a Skynest onboard an Air New Zealand flight until at least the end of 2021. In the meantime, however, Air New Zealand has filed a patent for its new product.
Its press release also hints that it wants to sell its new technology to other airlines:
“We expect other airlines will want to explore licensing the Economy Skynest from us just as they have with the Economy Skycouch.”
Is The Economy Skynest Practical?
I love the concept and I love how Air New Zealand is trying to address a real problem on longhaul flights. Traditionally, that solution has been called…business class…or at least premium economy class.
Based upon the video above, it appears these sleeping pods take up a fair amount of real estate. Certainly the concept allows for more beds than an expanded business class cabin in the same space, but I wonder if Air Zealand has considered selling “fractional” business class seats instead? Sell a lie-flat bed in a two-hour block and over the course of a longhaul flight you recoup the full cost (or more) of a business class seat?
It’s a bit premature to speculate, but I’m not convinced the economy (if you’ll pardon the pun) of space realistically allows for these Skynests onboard.
CONCLUSION
Kudos to Air New Zealand for thinking outside the box. I love the concept and under the right conditions, I can see the Economy Skynest as a viable product that, if priced correctly, will be a better hybrid between economy and business class than premium economy.
What are your thoughts on Air New Zealand’s new Economy Skynest?
photos: Air New Zealand
Just hire some of the lovely kiwi women to tuck me in while i fall asleep. Yeah works for me.
The more useful you make the product the less appealing it seems to me. For example, selling time in blocks. You would have to do set blocks for all 6 beds at a time. I wouldn’t want my sleeping “shift” to be 6-12 and then someone else start climbing up and down the ladder above me for a nap from 8-10 and the guy across from me is done at 7pm, etc.
What is the cargo utilization space of the planes this would be on? I could see putting a large number of pods down below, like the bathrooms in the 747s.
I have wondered about the feasibility of such a concept in the past. It’ll be interesting to see if Air New Zealand can pull it off in some fashion. But, yes, the practical concerns seem pretty overwhelming. You’ll notice, for instance, that they don’t actually show how people are supposed to get up into those top bunks. Is that fixture in the middle supposed to be a ladder?
One thing is certain: my kids would love it! 🙂
There is a potential that sleep will not be restful if these beds are sold by the hour and people just buy 2 hours. I might like it if the bed is sold for the entire flight. I wouldn’t mind if I had a bed and a reduced pitch seat, say 28″. There was a proposal for standing room seats, like seat pitch of 20″ and a mostly standing up. If so, I wouldn’t buy that seat unless I also bought bed.
I don’t think they’ll ever be able to make this work unless they find a way to make it not be a “dead” space for takeoff and landing. even as a tight triple bunk, the block of six takes the room of 9 coach seats, and you now also need 6 coach seats for the people who would be in it. 6:15 ratio means you need a 2.5x price premium to make the same money ie way, more than PE *unless* you are willing to cut the capacity of the plane and know you have the room in your load factors that it won’t matter.
I applause their desire to innovate but I doubt they can monetize this on a main cabin level in a way that makes sense. You either have to limit the blocks too much or hit people at a price point that destroys the value proposition.
If airlines want to improve the ability to rest in the lower cabins I think a far better path is a premium economy product that more closely replicates what business class used to be in the days of recliner seats at a reasonable
Premium. But even that seems a fantasy when you consider the premium airlines already want for PE.
Is there an AC outlet for CPAP machines?
And before it becomes an out-of-control etiquette issue like reclining, what it the protocol on snoring?
After all, these beds are fully recumbent (more snoring) and your head will be within 4.5 feet of 5 other heads.
Priority Pass members should get an hour free, like we do with Minute Suites.
For my 17h 30 flights SFO-SIN that I take every 3 weeks, I have a Polaris Business lie flat bed on UA but on the 14h 25m return I could do economy with an hour or two of being horizontal. I don’t have to have all 40 hours in a bed from IAH-SFO-SIN and back.
With regard to the space issue, I’d imagine that these Skynest beds would not be located on the main deck or below in the cargo hold, but up above in the crown of the aircraft above the main cabin next to where the crew rest compartments are located. Most people don’t realize that on some aircraft, particularly the 777, that space above the main deck is sizable and largely unused.