Atlantic: Sleeper seats and premium economy are just two of the trends, as the stakes continue to rise in the battle for high-fare passengers across the North Atlantic.(Statistical Data Included)

Publication: Airline Business

Publication Date: 04-JUN-01

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COPYRIGHT 2001 Reed Business Information Ltd.

What is next in the fiercely contested race to attract high-yield business passengers on transatlantic flights? On-board showers? A fully equipped health club?Massage and beauty treatments? Access to e-mail and the Internet? Business centres with meeting rooms and video conferencing? Full-service cocktail or coffee bars? All are possibilities in this increasingly high-stakes race. However, amid all these enticements, the seat itself remains a key transatlantic battleground.

And in the battle of the seats, the stakes have been raised significantly by British Airways. In 1995 the UK carrier launched the concept of the "flying bed"- seats that fold down electronically into a 2m (6ft 6in) long flat bed within a stylish and more private "seating compartment" - for first-class cabins on long-haul aircraft. In part a response to the growing popularity of Virgin's business/ first Upper Class product, the BA first-class beds were an innovation that has been copied by many others.

Raising the stakes

Now, BA has upped the stakes again, this time with a [pound]200 million ($290 million) investment to equip its Club World business section with seats that convert to a completely flat bed. It is not so wide, long or as luxurious as the first-class offering, but the seat does allow a business passenger to sleep lying flat. And it has been winning converts to the airline.

"I would not have believed it was possible to feel so much better in the morning after having slept all night," says one professional training consultant who flew from the USA to London in the new Club World. "It makes all the difference in the world. Everyone who has to work the next day ought to spend the night in one of those beds," she says.

To those accustomed to normal business-class seats, the cabin looks strange at first. To get 70 of these convertible seats into a Boeing 747-400 and 50 into the Boeing 777, the seats are designed in forward- and rearward-facing pairs in a two-four-two arrangement. Fellow travellers can either face each other, or sit next to each other in the middle section. A screen can be raised between each pair of seats for...

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