Qatar Airways has just unveiled its new economy class. Is it as revolutionary as promised?
Whether praising his products or attacking his competitors and partners, Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, is always very vocal. He recently promised a revolutionary new economy class: now that it’s been unveiled at ITB Berlin, what exactly is it?
Let’s start with a video to whet our appetites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y080OSfHTMU&feature=youtu.be
So let’s go.
At first glance, the atmosphere in the cabin isn’t going to change much: Qatar is doing Qatar and we’ll be sticking to familiar colors.
Let’s take a look at the product features.
More legroom in a denser cabin?
At first glance, Qatar has pulled off a real sleight of hand with its 19° recline, made possible by the fact that not only the backrest reclines (a little), but also the seat cushion moves forward (a lot). As for the pitch, no information has been given. People have measured that on the demonstration seat it was 30″, which is less than what we find today at Qatar on medium and long-haul flights (31-32″).
One of two things: either it was just the exhibition model, which would be surprising, or it’s actually the configuration we’ll be seeing in the cabin, in which case it means that Qatar is planning to make its cabins denser. If it achieves this while providing more legroom thanks to the seat’s reclining angle, it’s the solution to squaring the circle.
In any case, with this “virtually fixed-shell” seat, Qatar introduces concepts to the economy segment that were previously reserved for business or premium eco.
For information, these seats will first be installed on the short-medium-haul fleet (A319, A320, A321 before appearing on the rest of the fleet).
4K screens!
Passengers will also enjoy 13.3″ 4K screens. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, the screen in the economy class of Air France’s most recent cabins is 11.6″ on the new A330s cabins and 9″ on the 777s.
Indeed, it’s quite big.
Source : The Points Guy
A double fixed table!
Qatar Airways’ new economy seat will have not one but two tables! One is high and fixed, for placing a glass or a tablet if you want to watch movies on your own screen, and the other is at “normal” height for serving meals. The fact that the seat moves forward on its base to recline, rather than moving the backrest, means that the shelf will not move with the movements of the front passenger.
Wifi and fast charging
All seats will feature fast-charging USB-C ports to keep up with the latest market trends. At the same time, we’re promised one of the fastest wifis on board an aircraft, at the cost of heavy investment by the airline. We are promised a Wifi ten times faster (but faster than what?).
Qatar reinvents the Quisine in economy class
A product is not just the hard product (the seat), but also everything that goes with it (the soft-product), particularly food, which is usually a subject of complaint for passengers, whatever the airline. And here Qatar sets the promise very high with :
– more choice in menus
– 25% larger main courses
– 20% larger starters
– 50% larger desserts
Quite the opposite of what we see in the competition.
Bottom line: you can’t watch a revolution, you have to experience it.
On paper it’s beautiful. Without being as “crazy” as some speculated prior to its unveiling, the new Qatar Airways economy product introduces innovative concepts that are truly appealing at seat level, and dares to go against industry trends when it comes to catering.
But promises are all well and good, and we’re all too used to them in the airline industry. So we can’t wait to test it out in the air before delivering our final verdict. But in my opinion, we have here a product that is likely to become the new market benchmark.
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