British Airways continue to sweat its assets a bit more, with the completion of a refit of part of the Boeing 747 fleet.
Club World refreshed cabin – Image, British Airways
World Traveller refreshed cabin – Image, British Airways.
18 of the Boeing 747-400 fleet have gone in for the refresh
So what’s new?
These planes have been configured with a high seat count in Club World (Business Class), with 86 Club World seats. They also have 14 First Class seats, 30 World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy) and 145 World Traveller (Economy seats).
This is an increase of 16 Club World seats above the previous Hi-J configuration (with 70 Club World seats)
In-flight Entertainment is powered by Panasonic ex3 systems – a major step up on the old IFE system used with a postage stamp for a screen. As such, there will be an expanded range of programmes and films loaded on the system.
Work was carried out for British Airways by Airline Services Interiors who designed kits, mouldings, fascias for the Panasonic ex3 systems. You can read more about their work here when I met with them at Aircraft Interiors Expo
World Traveller Plus and World Traveller get new seat fabrics and new foams in the seats. World Traveller Plus seats will have AC style power sockets – replacing the old emPower DC power sockets. World Traveller passengers also get powered USB sockets too.
There’s also new seat covers, LED Lights, mood-lighting too involved in the refit, to match the current style the Airbus A380s and Boeing 787s are being delivered to.
British Airways say:
“We know customers who fly the revamped 747s really appreciate the improved interiors, with their mood lighting, better seating and new state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system, making their flight just fly by.
Our engineers have made these amazing aircraft look and feel like new, with enhanced comfort, cutting edge technology and cool, clean design.”
These refurbished 747-400 will fly on a mixture of routes where there is high demand for business class seats – these include New York JFK, Chicago, Johannesburg, Dubai, Boston, Riyadh, Kuwait, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Washington DC.
As usual – check you seat map to find out if your plane has it. As for a passenger experience, it’s got to be an improvement to the current plane – even in World Traveller Plus. See my review here.
As airlines seek to sweat their assets further and further, high quality refits are needed to deliver a good passenger experience. This refit seems to improve the passengers lot a fair bit.
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