Now, Air New Zealand comes up with bunk bed proposal

Passengers travelling in Air New Zealand may soon look forward to having a cat nap on their flights.

Sydney, Aug.10 : Passengers travelling in Air New Zealand may soon look forward to having a cat nap on their flights.

According to Nathan Agnew, Air New Zealand's General Manager for Strategic Development, the airline is considering a proposal to fit sleeping pods in its economy class in a bid to stay ahead of its rivals.

The sleeping pods are likely to be fitted into a fleet of Boeing 787-9 and 777-300ER long-range jets from 2010, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Air New Zealand has already equipped its planes with flat-bed business class seats, and premium economy seats which give about 15cm more leg room.

"We think that if you are going to do that concept why not push it to the next level, why stop there?" Agnew said.

"We haven't even constrained ourselves to saying that it necessarily will be a seat. The other option is to give people a sleeping pod," he added.

Air New Zealand engineers had been given a project to think about how the concept could work, Agnew said.

German airline Lufthansa was considering fitting economy beds in its Airbus A380 super jumbos.

One concept showed berths stacked three-high in a herringbone layout along the sides, and another row stacked down the middle of the cabin.

"We like it (the pod) as a concept. We are yet to evaluate whether practically it could be fitted out to an aircraft interior," Agnew said.

Cabin crew already sleep in pods during long distance flights, usually hidden away at the rear plane or in the ceiling space above the passenger cabin.

Because eating in a pod might be difficult, passengers may be served a meal at the airport before the flight, allowing them to immediately go to sleep once on the plane.

Agnew said airfares would be similar to current economy fares.

A big issue for engineers to overcome was finding a way to make the pods as light as possible. Agnew stressed that it was still a theoretical concept with no guarantees that Air New Zealand would ultimately provide them in its new planes.

ANI