The news here is primarily in catering.
New ovens allowing food to be freshly cooked, with indications this can include steak, bacon, eggs and pizza. Business Premier customers will be able to order on demand food the way they want it. Premium Economy looks like having a similar option. Undoubtedly compared to reheating food, this is a major step up from the status quo. Although eating on demand in business class is increasingly available, it is typically seen in first class.
No doubt economy class food will still be reheated, as there would not be enough time to do anything else. However, being able to order snacks and drinks on demand will be a challenge for the cabin crew. Crew will face the challenge of people ordering drinks more easily than at present (easier to select on a screen than to push a call button and ask for service), but also cooking rather than heating meals.
A new entertainment system will be installed, using the Panasonic system now installed on 767s and A320s. Screens in economy will be 2” larger than at present, and it will be touchscreen. Without hard shell seats in economy, this could be a nuisance particularly with children behind a passenger. However, one innovation will be the use of the system to indicate when meals are to be served, what is available and when lights will be turned down. This additional information for travelers will be a nice touch. It also looks like all seats have power points for laptops and MP3 players.
Bathrooms have been redesigned, hopefully premium bathrooms will have more room and it is interesting to see NZ following Lufthansa in having opening windows in bathrooms.
So overall some useful tweaks, although I'd be interested to know the size of entertainment screens in premium economy and business premier. The latter now has screens smaller than the latest products by Singapore and Emirates.
Catering is the most exciting change though. It is an area Air NZ has decided differentiates itself clearly from the competition, and is an opportunity to be innovative and get a reputation that premium travellers will appreciate.
Verdict: Potential for NZ to be world leader in business class catering, it already is in premium economy (serving business class food). In Economy it's already good by industry standards. Entertainment system largely a tweak, but the introduction of inflight information through the system regarding food, lighting and the rest is a good step forward. Gets an A.
New ovens allowing food to be freshly cooked, with indications this can include steak, bacon, eggs and pizza. Business Premier customers will be able to order on demand food the way they want it. Premium Economy looks like having a similar option. Undoubtedly compared to reheating food, this is a major step up from the status quo. Although eating on demand in business class is increasingly available, it is typically seen in first class.
No doubt economy class food will still be reheated, as there would not be enough time to do anything else. However, being able to order snacks and drinks on demand will be a challenge for the cabin crew. Crew will face the challenge of people ordering drinks more easily than at present (easier to select on a screen than to push a call button and ask for service), but also cooking rather than heating meals.
A new entertainment system will be installed, using the Panasonic system now installed on 767s and A320s. Screens in economy will be 2” larger than at present, and it will be touchscreen. Without hard shell seats in economy, this could be a nuisance particularly with children behind a passenger. However, one innovation will be the use of the system to indicate when meals are to be served, what is available and when lights will be turned down. This additional information for travelers will be a nice touch. It also looks like all seats have power points for laptops and MP3 players.
Bathrooms have been redesigned, hopefully premium bathrooms will have more room and it is interesting to see NZ following Lufthansa in having opening windows in bathrooms.
So overall some useful tweaks, although I'd be interested to know the size of entertainment screens in premium economy and business premier. The latter now has screens smaller than the latest products by Singapore and Emirates.
Catering is the most exciting change though. It is an area Air NZ has decided differentiates itself clearly from the competition, and is an opportunity to be innovative and get a reputation that premium travellers will appreciate.
Verdict: Potential for NZ to be world leader in business class catering, it already is in premium economy (serving business class food). In Economy it's already good by industry standards. Entertainment system largely a tweak, but the introduction of inflight information through the system regarding food, lighting and the rest is a good step forward. Gets an A.
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