SIA economy is tops

SPACIOUS seats, champagne and blockbuster movies – cattle class has never been this ritzy.
Seven seats spanning each row instead of the usual 10, so passengers get more room.
While other airlines, like EVA Air and British Airways, also offer premium economy seats, Singapore Airlines has pulled out all the stops to create the most luxurious ones so far.
It offers wider seats, more entertainment choices and a higher crew to passenger ratio.
These Executive Economy Class seats, already available in its non-stop long-haul flights to Los Angeles, will also be offered from tomorrow on its non-stop flights to New York on Airbus A340-500 planes.
Miss Teo Meng Joo, 19, a university student who flew the 18-hour non-stop SIA flight from Los Angeles to Singapore a month ago, said she stretched out on the spacious seats and managed to catnap.
Laptop charging points.
Her verdict? ‘The seats were big, the in-flight entertainment was great. If I had the money, I’d go on it again.’
One of the earliest to offer premium economy class seats was EVA Air. It introduced its Evergreen Deluxe seat in 1992 on Boeing B747-400 and McDonnell Douglas MD11 planes.
Scandinavian Airways System, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways soon followed suit.
Passengers pay more for premium economy seats, which bridge the gap between business and coach class, and get extra space and better amenities.
On SIA and British Airways flights, such seats have electrical points for powering up laptop computers. EVA Air serves premium economy meals on porcelain, not plastic.
Personal 9-inch screens
SIA is the first airline to replace all economy seats on a plane with premium economy ones on the two non-stop flights to Los Angeles and New York. These flights also offer business class, but not first class.
Although these Airbus A340-500 planes can take more than 300 passengers, they have only 181 seats, to give passengers more room and greater comfort to work, sleep or move about, said an SIA spokesman.
She said: ‘The Executive Economy Class product was developed because we believe there is a good market for the product on the Singapore-US route.’
Passenger loads on the LA flights have been encouraging, she said, and February to May numbers have been ‘above average’.
Space to lounge around.
British Airways said its World Traveller Plus programme in 2000 was ‘extremely well-received’.
Its research shows that there is ‘a niche for the value-conscious traveller who desires more space and privacy’, said BA’s spokesman.
Although many airlines think there may be a niche for these travellers who want the comfort of business but don’t want to pay the price, Mr Anthony Concil, the corporate communications director of the International Air Transport Association, thinks premium economy is ‘not a must-do product’.
He doesn’t think it’s an industry trend and said that not every airline finds premium economy a pragmatic and commercial choice.
But it definitely makes a difference to passengers like Mr Ray Bigger, who owns his own training company in Singapore, and travels on business to London and Sydney, and around the region several times a year.
He said: ‘It’s that extra 15cm to 20cm between my knees and the seat in front.
‘Or the fact that I don’t have to worry about getting stopped at the gates because my laptop and notes have exceeded the usual baggage allowance.
‘It’s economical and good value for money.’