by Ten years after airlines were forced to ditch first-class cabins in favor of new upgraded state-of-the-art suites, first-class style is back.
British Airways will soon unveil a new first class suite on its Airbus A380 superjumbos and is creating new teams of dedicated first class cabin crew. Emirates is using the first class cabins on its A380s, which provide showers. The walls of the 14 are set higher, the seats are wider and better upholstered, and there are new pajamas and slippers.
Etihad, the Abu Dhabi flag carrier, has once again flown its A380, which offers the Residence, a 125 square foot three-room micro-apartment with a lounge area, bathroom with shower, and a double bed in the nose cone. I am for £5,500 for one passenger, or £9,000 for two, from London to Abu Dhabi. Singapore Airlines offers double beds in its Suites class on its A380s.
But one carrier is better than them all. Qantas. Australia’s flag carrier has unveiled the most exclusive, stylish and high-tech airline cabin anywhere outside of a private jet. At the Airbus factory in Toulouse, Travel Telegraph a highlight at the new cabin to be installed on Qantas’ ultra-long-haul Airbus A350 jets, which will soon begin flying 21 hours non-stop from London and New York to Sydney and Melbourne.
There are six large enclosed cabins, arranged in a 1-1-1 formation across the front of two rows of seats in the four-class jet. Each one comes with a 0.6m-wide folding seat, a 2m-long separate bed, a wardrobe, a 32-inch TV, and a dining table that can seat three people comfortably. The bed has a headboard that can be angled forward, so you can sit up in bed to read, watch a movie or live sports broadcast on the ultra-fast Wi-Fi, or look out the window. Each set contains five lights that you can use to create the exact brightness and tone you need.
The color palette is light with eggshell seat fabrics and sage green trim to create what designer David Caon calls “a true Australian aesthetic. In your beach house you are not dark and moody. You have lighter, fresher colors.” Wrapping around the walls and door looks like European oak, with a textured grain, but is actually a synthetic veneer. “Real wood has a lot of wood and is difficult to refinish and maintain,” explains Caon.
All six padding compartments in the room are integrated into the surfaces and close flush. “I want to wrap everything completely to create a visual calm,” says Caon. The touchscreen controls for seat position and lighting are discreetly located in a panel in the wall, and wireless charging is built into the surface storage areas. There are two bathrooms for the passengers in the six rooms.
The stowage compartments in the cabins mean there are no overhead bins in the first class cabin. This has helped Qantas introduce the most sophisticated and stylish cabin lighting of any commercial airline, which it will use to help passengers of all classes adjust to their destination time zone – vital on the 21 hour non-stop flights to Oz.
“Awake” is blue-enriched lighting that helps you stay awake even though you might want to pass out. “Sunset” moves through the shades of black into the night sky over several minutes. It ends with “moonlight” with a slow moving cloud effect to relax customers and prepare them for sleep. I tried it on a lie-up on the jet and it put me to sleep instantly even in the middle of the day. The “sunrise” rolls from the front of the cabin to the back over several minutes, mimicking a real sky bridge with blue on the ceiling and warm reds on the sides.
Each cabin will also have “Dining Day” and “Dining Night” settings. There are “Welcome” and “Goodbye” scenes for boarding and landing, as well as customized colors for taxiing, takeoff and landing. The first class cabin welcome lighting is a mix of blue, warm white, apricot and pink. There’s even a “Mardi Gras” setting that turns the Airbus into a party bus.
The brightest lighting of all is in the 8m² Wellness Zone, between the economy and premium economy cabins, which all passengers can use to stretch out, socialize, eat healthy snacks and enjoy drinks (non-alcoholic). Caon, Qantas and Airbus used special lenses in front of the galley-mounted lights to bounce the light over the ceiling and side walls, like refracting sunlight off the surface of a swimming pool. “It creates a sense of calm and space and is quintessentially Australian,” says Caon.
The lighting is the result of more than 150 hours of testing at the Airbus Customer Definition Center in Hamburg by Qantas, Caon and the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre, which researches the impact of long-haul travel on passengers and the best way to combat jet lag. .
“Aircraft lighting doesn’t cross most travelers’ minds but light plays an important role in regulating our body clocks,” says Caon. “By manipulating the timing, strength and wavelength of light during flight, passengers can be ‘tricked’ into staying awake and going to sleep at times that help them reach the ground when landing.”
The only real problem with Qantas first class is how much to pay for non-stop returns from London to Sydney and Melbourne. The airline’s new boss, Vanessa Hudson, is an accountant, so expect sticker shock. My money is on £16,000.
