In an interesting sign of a legacy carrier "getting it, Air France has announced a major redesign of its 777 and A380 interiors.
The past few years have seen major interior design advances by the Gulf and some Asian airlines in particular .The 777 has become a very long legged ideal Ultra Long Range aircraft and the cabin sizes and shapes offered by the A380 have presented major opportunities for new thinking about interior design. As result the Asian and Emirates A380s have come with a wow factor especially in their premium classes while the legacy customers, Qantas, Air France and Lufthansa have been distinctly unadventurous. and not taken the opportunities the new aircraft offers. No doubt their accountants hold greater sway and find the word "investment" hard to swallow if it isn't in the aircraft itself .Even then as they link it to the other bugbear "debt" they have been trying hard both to delay and to minimise it. That's what Treasuries do, just as they do in nation states. Don't expect doing anything other than hoarding money to ever excite them.
New interiors and seating are expensive and time consuming to fit. It is no longer a strip out and refit job but is often accompanied by a substantial, indeed nightmarish, rewiring of seat electronics and in flight entertainment systems. With the enormous cost and downtime involved , airlines are faced with a dilemma of exactly when in the life of an aircraft to strip out or even refurbish cabins so as to maximise the returns and ensure that the new kit has a respectable longevity and payback time. The long delays to 787, A380 and, coming soon , A350 , deliveries has caused huge dilemmas. 747s, 767s and some early 777s which were expected to have been scrapped or sold by now have soldiered on with increasingly shabby and outdated interiors and entertainment systems. In some cases this has and continues to seriously threaten brand proposition and integrity. BA has soldiered on and only recently decided to go ahead with upgrades to some long and short haul 767s as well as a number of 747s. Some airlines have heeded the accountants urgings to just grin and bear it and rebuild customer perceptions when the new aircraft eventually arrive in 2014, 15 or whenever. That's a long time to carry on not impresssing the customers.
There are two separate strands to the refitting debate. The first is whether or not to go for a total and much more expensive redesign of both the fittings and the sort of service to be delivered and the second is the simpler need just to keep interiors constantly looking new, something Lufthansa in particular has been very good at while other US and European legacy airlines have chosen to ignore and as result risk looking distinctly scruffy inside and out. The latter isn't a good idea when you are hoping for brand leadership and premium pricing and we now have the situation where Easyjet and others look a great deal smarter than their so called "full service" and more expensive rivals.
Air France's move, costing several hundred million dollars, is an encourageing indication that at least one of the grand old ladies of Europe has understood where the competition has moved to and is pitching in accordingly. No doubt in other places, especially where there is a history of nationalisation and the finance department tail wags the dog , some will remain in denial and hide under the table at least until the new fleets arrive. Even then they need to be sure that they aren't just investing in a clean version of the old. They need to join Air France in jumping into the design war with real enthusiasm, and then resist calls to "thrift" it.
The past few years have seen major interior design advances by the Gulf and some Asian airlines in particular .The 777 has become a very long legged ideal Ultra Long Range aircraft and the cabin sizes and shapes offered by the A380 have presented major opportunities for new thinking about interior design. As result the Asian and Emirates A380s have come with a wow factor especially in their premium classes while the legacy customers, Qantas, Air France and Lufthansa have been distinctly unadventurous. and not taken the opportunities the new aircraft offers. No doubt their accountants hold greater sway and find the word "investment" hard to swallow if it isn't in the aircraft itself .Even then as they link it to the other bugbear "debt" they have been trying hard both to delay and to minimise it. That's what Treasuries do, just as they do in nation states. Don't expect doing anything other than hoarding money to ever excite them.
New interiors and seating are expensive and time consuming to fit. It is no longer a strip out and refit job but is often accompanied by a substantial, indeed nightmarish, rewiring of seat electronics and in flight entertainment systems. With the enormous cost and downtime involved , airlines are faced with a dilemma of exactly when in the life of an aircraft to strip out or even refurbish cabins so as to maximise the returns and ensure that the new kit has a respectable longevity and payback time. The long delays to 787, A380 and, coming soon , A350 , deliveries has caused huge dilemmas. 747s, 767s and some early 777s which were expected to have been scrapped or sold by now have soldiered on with increasingly shabby and outdated interiors and entertainment systems. In some cases this has and continues to seriously threaten brand proposition and integrity. BA has soldiered on and only recently decided to go ahead with upgrades to some long and short haul 767s as well as a number of 747s. Some airlines have heeded the accountants urgings to just grin and bear it and rebuild customer perceptions when the new aircraft eventually arrive in 2014, 15 or whenever. That's a long time to carry on not impresssing the customers.
There are two separate strands to the refitting debate. The first is whether or not to go for a total and much more expensive redesign of both the fittings and the sort of service to be delivered and the second is the simpler need just to keep interiors constantly looking new, something Lufthansa in particular has been very good at while other US and European legacy airlines have chosen to ignore and as result risk looking distinctly scruffy inside and out. The latter isn't a good idea when you are hoping for brand leadership and premium pricing and we now have the situation where Easyjet and others look a great deal smarter than their so called "full service" and more expensive rivals.
Air France's move, costing several hundred million dollars, is an encourageing indication that at least one of the grand old ladies of Europe has understood where the competition has moved to and is pitching in accordingly. No doubt in other places, especially where there is a history of nationalisation and the finance department tail wags the dog , some will remain in denial and hide under the table at least until the new fleets arrive. Even then they need to be sure that they aren't just investing in a clean version of the old. They need to join Air France in jumping into the design war with real enthusiasm, and then resist calls to "thrift" it.
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