British Airways is continuing with the roll out of its newest business class seat, the ‘Club Suite’, as it continues to retrofit the seat across its Boeing 777 fleet, with the speedy roll out expected to be completed by the end of 2022. The airline has already retrofitted a handful of its Boeing 777 aircraft…
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Qatar Airways is seen as one of the ‘true’ Five Star airlines in the world and it has worked hard over the past decade to position itself as a true luxury carrier. At the heart of its recent efforts is the airline’s QSuite, a Flagship product that only a few carriers have managed to surpass…
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Today saw the official arrival of the British Airways A350. The aircraft which was meant to arrive on Friday was delayed due to the air traffic control and weather issues at Heathrow. However, today saw no sign of either of those. Under perfectly blue skies, British Airways wheeled out the new aircraft which in reality arrived…
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Air France has not only unveiled, but launched its new A330 cabin today, including the award-winning premium economy, new economy cabins and for the first time, a brand new Business Class cabin. A total of 15 aircraft will be retrofitted with 36 seats in Business, 21 seats in Premium Economy and 167 seats in Economy,…
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If travelling internationally with American Airlines, chances are you’ve heard about the carriers wide-body fleet touting all-aisle-access and fully flat beds on certain key routes. However, if you are flying on a less prestigious city pairing, you may still be flying on one of American’s slightly more dated 757 products. The good news is that…
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TAP Portugal today hinted at a brand new future for their long haul fleet, based on two new A330 aircraft that will join the fleet. It is fairly easy to distill as the future vision of the rest of the long haul fleet. Visuals released yesterday match the exact photos used by Azul to showcase…
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This will please the avgeeks. Did it infuriate you as much as it did us, when onboard, we looked at the fleet information or route maps to find they were out of date, or the information wasn’t detailed enough? London based company Neutral have just announced their new software for airlines which will change the way…
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Aircalin has taken the new delivery of its latest A320 as an opportunity to relaunch its livery. Another Pacific based airline, like Fiji Airways and O’hana by Hawaiian, has looked at its cultural roots to offer a unique and considered design, celebrating the culture of the New Caledonian islands it flies from. The original livery…
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SAS, excitingly, have announced a brand new cabin concept for their long haul aircraft. Featuring business class, premium economy and economy classes, the new cabin and seat designs leap the airline into 2014 with a loud bang. Competing against carriers such as Finnair who have already pushed their airline forward with new designed cabins, SAS…
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Our TheDesignAir Top 10 lists have undergone a revamp in 2014, and to aid transparency, our top 10 airlines will now have their rating out of 100 shown, as voted for and calculated by our judging panel. What is interesting for our Top 10 International business classes 2014 is the wide ranging percentage scores within the top…
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Our friends at Hawaiian have just released a video time-lapse of the painting of their very first ATR. Whilst we announced this a while ago, secretly we’ve been waiting for the chance to see this livery for real. The new aircraft are absolutely stunning and are yet another winning livery for the pacific –…
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Sister Airline to the award winning Cathay Pacific; Dragonair, the regional / medium-haul carrier has just announced its cabin offerings to lift the airline’s level of luxury. The most recent announcement is the launch of their First Class offering. If the seat looks familiar, that is because it is identical to Cathay Pacific’s new long-haul…
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Royal Brunei, when we reported on their new livery and look a while ago, didn’t inspire us too much, their artists impressions made the aircraft look flat and badly proportioned. Now we like to think they saw our comments and made a few tweaks, but realistically, we know that the aircraft reality and artists impressions can…
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Our good friends at Fiji Airways, winner of the best livery 2013 in our Top 10 Liveries have now extended their brand to the domestic and regional carrier Pacific Sun. Pacific Sun, since the new re-branding of Fiji’s International airline, has been at odds with the earthy colours and sophisticated cabins, although obviously the friendly and…
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One of our favourite carriers, Hawaiian Airlines has recently announced that in June 2014, their A330 fleet will offer a new level of comfort in their economy cabin. Titled ‘Extra Comfort Economy’, Hawaiian, In their first comprehensive redesign of its long-haul seating configuration, will be offering a new class of seats that offer more legroom and other amenities…
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We are great fans of Marc Newson and what he is achieving at Qantas with regards to design. The lounges in Sydney are spectacular (and won our Top 10 Lounges last year) and his attempts at pulling the fleet into the 21st century have been very successful. (perhaps in part due to the competition arisen…
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Only a day after JetBlue announced their new premium trans-continental product launch including mini-suites, Delta have announced their new premium trans-continental US service onboard their 757 fleet. All in all, they have pulled out the big guns, and with American yet to reveal their new cabin product, the gloves, most certainly are off. Way to…
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Cathay Pacific have recently been injecting time and effort into ensuring their cabin products stay at the forefront of people’s minds. The award winning first class suite, first seen onboard in 2007 wasn’t in need of a redesign, instead, a refresh was all that was needed to keep the cabin a premium product in almost…
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Oh dear. Sometimes a Facebook page isn’t such a good idea. Last week Air Canada showcased images of their new cabin on their Facebook page. As we reported back in February, the new 777-300 they have brought to their fleet was been configured in what can only be described as a step above “sardine tin”.…
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Whilst Virgin Atlantic has been seen as a forward thinking leader in the airline field (although now with a wealth of other airlines also in the same field) it seems a nod to a bit of nostalgia is on the cards for their uniforms, which we announced a few months ago, are now designed by…
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Singapore Airlines has been the epitome of luxury for many years now. Many airlines look to the airline, not only for the product they have onboard, but the way that Singapore Airlines effortlessly conveys luxury and sophistication. Singapore Airlines has not failed to deliver on their latest incarnation of products which will replace the current fleets…
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Tiger Airways, now Tiger Air, has just gone through a rebranding exercise, gone the tiger, and instead a large bold logo adorns the fuselage of the aircraft. We have to say we are a little saddened by this. The tiger, whilst a little bit ‘clipart’, was a great logo, and this new logo is purely…
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Our friends, Fiji Airways, have announced the latest stage of their rebranding excercise, bringing back the original glamour and authentic of their previous incarnation of the airline. The carrier on Thursday 27th June, relaunched itself worldwide as Fiji Airways, retiring its ‘Air Pacific’ brand. The defining moment, was the reveal of the new uniforms, created by…
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Alaska Airlines this week revealed it’s latest unique livery for it’s fleet, designed by 17 year old Aaron Nee. The design was part of a competition run by the airline to create a livery that ‘honored the culture of the Aloha State’. Nee’s design was selected from among more than 2,700 submissions by students across the…
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We are pleased to announce our Top 10 economy classes for 2013. We have scoured the world for airlines that have really shown us something truly special. Whilst many airlines didn’t make the list, we’d like to state that generally over the past 12 months, we have seen airlines around the world innovate and renovate…
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“I think that was Justin Timber-what’s-his-face serving me my Gin & Tonic?” I can imagine a few people in their ‘later years of life’ whispering to each other as they go on their annual holiday. Welcome to Air Canada Rouge’s new uniform. Following the trend of the capsule wardrobe that most North American Carriers seem…
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A few months ago, we posted the artists impression for Air Canada’s new diffusion brand ‘rouge’ set for their leisure routes. The first plane has been painted and has just shown itself to the world in these glossy press pics. Whilst a shiny plane always looks great, we still can’t help but feel this brand…
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Now that Batik Air, Lion Air’s latest ‘Premium’ venture, has been flying for a few weeks, we thought it best to take some time to take a look at this new carrier and what you can expect. Firstly, Let’s talk interiors. The whole premise of the airline is to fly passengers around the Asia region…
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Virgin Atlantic announced today they were going to launch a new uniform for the 7,500 staff that wear the Virgin brand, designed by British designer Dame Vivienne Westwood. The collaboration between the two British brands is a long-term partnership which will see a total re-design of the uniform across all areas. With original design and sustainability…
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Garuda Indonesia has had a resurgence in the past few years, and as part of their ‘Quantum Leap’ program announced last year, Garuda have re-launched both their first class product (whilst other carriers continue to remove their products) and ‘executive’ business class. Now available to purchase on their new 777 fleet, the product is of…
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