Lay down beds in Economy class.

Air New Zealand announced a few months ago its plan to have lie down beds in economy class on its long haul flights which will be a world first, Its a project that an Air New Zealand team has been working on for the last three years.

Just today they released the design, Its a row of three seats which will provide a flat surface for two adults to sleep on, Later this year Air New Zealand takes delivery of the first of its new Boeing 777-300 aircraft that will be fitted with these new lay down beds (Skycouch).

A Skycouch ticket will be based on buying two seats at the standard price and the third seat at half-price, there will be Twenty-two sets of Skycouch seats and they will be going on sale from late April.

The 340 seat 777-300 aircraft will be configured with 246 in Economy (including 66 seats creating 22 Skycouch combinations), 50 in Premium Economy and 44 in Business Premier.

The first routes to offer travelers the new Skycouch seats will be on selected services between Auckland and Los Angeles from December this year, and then followed by dedicated return services between Auckland and Los Angeles and through to London from April 2011.

Air New Zealand will also be re-fitting its existing fleet of eight Boeing 777-200s fromJune 2011 and its Asian, North American and UK services should have the new skycouch in 2012.