Editors Note: We’re going through our backlog today of stuff that has been “I meant to hit the publish button, but I was trying to think of something witty”. Relevant, but older information is on the way.
It seems that KLM is finally dragging itself into the mid-21st century, with the airline announcing its Premium Comfort Class – or as the rest of the industry would call it – Premium Economy.
Premium Comfort is a new inflight class with its own cabin for the airline, offering a new type of seats as well as distinctive service and catering concepts – what other airlines refer to as “Premium Economy” (or their own branded variants of it).
Depending on the aircraft type, the capacity of Premium Comfort Class will vary from 21 to 28 seats, which will be wider than standard seats, offering more legroom, a larger screen and a footrest. Based on KLM numbers:
Premium Comfort Deployment with KLM – Slide- KLM
For those who prefer text:
- Boeing 787-10 – 28 seats
- Boeing 787-9 – 21 seats
- Boeing 777-300ER – 24 seats
- Boeing 777-200ER – 24 seats
Interestingly, Economy Comfort will see boosts across these fleets too, with the space being consumed from the Economy Cabin. Business Class sees no reduction (or in the case of the 777 fleet – a minor bump of one extra seat)
The new seats in Premium Comfort Class were designed by Collins Aerospace together with KLM Customer Experience, based on the MiQ product.
Seating images of the lighter version of the MiQ seat – Collins Aerospace via Twitter.
The Premium Comfort seats can also recline further than Economy Class seats for those who need that extra legroom and recline space (although a tilt-back angle has not been disclosed.
The reconfiguration of aircraft cabins will be carried out by specialists at KLM Engineering & Maintenance at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
Catering and Ground Service
The softer side of the Premium Comfort requires additional work, with the airline offering the class its own catering concept. On intercontinental services, one or two hot meals will be served, depending on the duration of the flight.
There will always be a choice of meat, fish or vegetarian dishes. After the meal, passengers will be offered coffee, tea, liqueur and ice cream. A variety of snacks and cocktails will also be served between meals, which will be largely selected from those that were previously popular in World Business Class.
On the ground, there will be Premium Comfort Class services too, where passengers will have more flexible baggage arrangements and SkyPriority privileges, including preferential check-in and boarding.
Deployment
The first aircraft equipped with Premium Comfort Class will operate on routes to North America. Actual first flight dates and routes have yet to be confirmed by the airline
KLM is anticipating a rapid rollout – with passengers will be able to book Premium Comfort to a growing range of destinations from the end of July 2022.
In Quotes
Boet Kreiken, executive vice president of KLM Customer Experience
“We have great expectations for this new Premium Comfort Class, based on extensive market research. The new class will meet the wishes of business passengers as well as leisure travellers, strengthening KLM’s standing as a global network carrier offering an appealing and varied range: World Business Class, Premium Comfort and Economy Class. It also reaffirms our partnership with Delta Air Lines, Air France and Virgin Atlantic on North Atlantic routes, where we can now combine all products on all routes.”
Some “interesting” design choices.
John Walton picked up some of the more interesting choices – namely the positioning of controls and chargers on the seat.
Looking forward to calling the flight attendant with my leg. Also, I get to snap off two separate USB connectors now because apparently sockets at mid thigh is a good idea. #PaxEx https://t.co/z2AavwJtPZ pic.twitter.com/8zV1PcHeXf
— John Walton 🏳️🌈🇪🇺 (@thatjohn) May 27, 2022
And I’ve got to agree – that connector bank is asking for trouble, along with the many accidental call presses. All it will take is a thigh leaning inwards to the armrest and bongs will go off.
I’m sure the crew will love it.
As for power outlets, it raises more than a few eyebrows in terms of positioning – where most airlines have only chosen this sort of configuration on a bulkhead row. Apart from the bumps that passengers will cause (because people removing cables before they leave their seats does not happen), I worry about the long term life of those outlets.
You can only bend and stress USB connectors only so many times before faults start to occur.
Filling the important gap
Looking at KLM’s joint venture transatlantic partners (Virgin Atlantic, Delta and Air France), KLM is currently an outlier as they currently don’t have a premium economy product – rather an extra space product (something that all their partners already offer).
It’s a big gap for the airline – with them deploying the new product on joint venture routes rather than elsewhere on its network. It can be assumed that this will give a uniform offering across the venture, as opposed to being the odd one out.
In hard product terms, we’ll have to see what the hardware is like. Hopefully, we’ll find out a little more in the coming weeks.
All Images- KLM/Collins Aerospace.
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