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.

Kumeu Classic car festival

Just a quick post, The photos are from the recent Kumeu classic car festival just out of Auckland , New Zealand. Ive been attending this event for many years, It just gets bigger and bigger all the time.

Enjoy the photos.

No Boeing 787-3's on order.

No Boeing 787-3's on order.

What does this mean? Is Boeing abandoning the 787-3 or has it been mothballed just like Airbus mothballed the A380 Freighter variant?

Is it because JAL and ANA which are the only customers to express and interest in the 3 version and have decided that the range capability wasn't enough and have decided to go with the 787-8 or 787-9, Or maybe the Japanese operators just want earlier deliveries of the 787 to be able to compete in the tough Asian market.
This leaves the question, If Japan airlines and All Nippon Airways are taking deliveries earlier, Other customers of the 787 must be prepared to take delivery later. This could then lead to some airlines deferring or canceling there orders.

Boeing could even delay the release of the 787-9, But this could lead to more cancellations or deferrals unless Boeing is prepared to pay compensation, There are several airlines that are seeking compensation, These airlines were relying on the 787 to replace currently leased aircraft whose leases have expired, The last thing these airlines want is further delays.

Deferral could be a good option with the worlds financial situation at present and the amount of people traveling have dropped dramatically over the past year.

Maybe Boeing are reducing the number of series in the 787 range to cut unnecessary capital expenditure and R&D.