15 May 2008

Qantas stuffs up A380 cabin release

When Singapore Airlines highlighted the new cabins as the first airline flying the Airbus A380 "whalejet" it got accolades. From the Suites providing proper beds in cabins with sliding doors, being undoubtedly the best first class in the air, its fully lie flat wide business class seats (as wide as the pitch between typical economy class seats), and its slightly wider economy class seats with bigger entertainment screens. Singapore Airlines has something to show off and rightfully so.
.
Emirates is the second airlines to fly the A380, but has not released interior photos. Qantas will be the third, but has.
.
It's so underwhelming, some commentators think the airline has screwed up. I'd have to agree. Here are the publicly available photos. The first class looks no better than Air NZ's Business Premier but reversed the other way, the business class looks like current Qantas business class but the seat cushioning looks dishevelled and uninspiring. Economy class, yawn. Now it might be better if professional photographers and the PR wonks tart it all up (as they should've, not just let some journo take some pics), but look for yourself. Would you choose Singapore Airlines or Qantas? I don't think there is any contest... Singapore remains supreme.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those A380 pictures are truly disappointing. Are they the same dated Qantas Skybeds in Business. The new Qantas First lounge in Sydney is a reasonable result from Marc Newsom, but this effort is not even close to the new Singapore Airlines business class, which was a leap forward over both the dated Qantas Skybeds and Air New Zealand Business Premier.

Libertyscott said...

I believe the Skybeds have more legroom and have been adjusted to be fully lie flat, which is a key improvement. Not that you would notice that.

From Australia to UK, Qantas is still beaten by Singapore, BA and Virgin in Business. It WILL have the best Premium Economy, but we don't have a picture of that on the A380.