Well this is a pleasant surprise to wake up to. While most of us are still nursing our way through our morning coffee, ANA decided to go big. This morning, ANA announced they will be offering a new first class and business class seat on their 777-300 ER planes. I’m not even sure calling it a surprise gives ANA enough credit though. This is a mic drop.

1. New 777x Engine
2. New 777 Airplane

New Emirates 777 business class cabin It’s embarrassing that a leading airline has this as their new business class. On the plus side, I find Emirates’ new cabin finishes to be much more understated and beautiful than the old ones. It’s also surprising just how private these seats are. The new design initially designated, Boeing 777X, is offered in two variants, the Boeing 777 8 and the Boeing 777 9. Much like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was referred to as the Boeing 7E7 during its design phase, the 777X is now marketed as the 777-8 and the 777-9 and was offered to market from May 2013. Boeing 777X Folding Wingtips.

New First Class – “The Suite”

ANA’s new first class – “The Suite” (courtesy of ANA)

ANA describes their new first class suite as the most spacious fully enclosed seating ever seen on an ANA aircraft”. It certainly looks roomy and impressive. While their current first class is an awkward not-enclosed-kind-of-enclosed-faux-wood seat, the new seat is fully inclosed and looks really sleek. If you’re sitting in a middle seat, the suite also includes a partition that can be raised or lowered, depending on if you like the person next to you 😉.

ANA’s new first class – “The Suite” (courtesy of ANA)

Perhaps the most noticeable feature is the new 43-inch 4K in-flight entertainment screen. Let that sink in for a second – 43 freaking inches. That’s close to what many people have in their homes, but ANA put it in an airplane. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of anything close to that on an airplane. If they can figure out how to serve wings and show football, I’d feel right at home on Sundays in the fall.

ANA’s new first class – “The Suite” (courtesy of ANA)

New Business Class – “The Room”

ANA’s New Business Class – “The Room” (courtesy of ANA)

Not to be forgotten, ANA is also introducing a new business class seat called, “The Room”. The new business class seat seems to take a page out of the Qatar Qsuite playbook. “The Room” features doors, giving passengers the option to have a fully enclosed seat. The seat also offers what ANA describes as, “one of the largest Business Class seating environments in the world – with a wide sofa which is double the width to previous Business Class seating”.

ANA’s new business class – “The Room” (courtesy of ANA)

Based on promotional pictures, ANA’s new business class seat looks incredible. This has the potential to rival Qatar’s Qusites for the top business class product in the world. We’ll have to wait and see whether the actual product matches the marketing speak once it is officially launches next month.

ANA’s new business class – “The Room” (courtesy of ANA)

New 777x Engine

Cabin Layout

ANA’s updated 777-300 ER will maintain a premium-heavy cabin layout. The updated cabin will feature:

• 8 first class seats in a 1-2-1 layout
• 64 business class seats in a staggered 1-2-1 layout
• 24 premium economy seats in a 2-4-2 layout
• 116 economy seats in a 3-4-3 layout

Great! So, when can I fly this?

The redesigned cabin will launch on the Tokyo Haneda/London (HND-LHR) route on August 2nd. The flight will operate under the flight numbers NH211 (westbound) and NH212 (eastbound).

To start out, the aircraft will be operated on the even number dates in August and odd number dates in September. The new aircraft will operate daily beginning in late August or early September.

Final Thoughts

We’ve seen many airlines significantly upgrade their business class offerings the past few years. With the recent innovations in business class, many airlines are choosing to do-away with first class entirely. With the addition of doors to products like Qatar’s Qsuites, Delta One, and British Airways new Club World Suite, airlines don’t see as much of a need for a higher service cabin.

Not only has ANA improved their business class and added a door. They’ve given us a new product that looks like a first class seat, while still being in business. On top of that, they’ve also improved their first class. It’s a welcome surprise to see an airline not only commit to keeping first class, but improve their product. The real star here though is the business class. I can’t wait to see it in action.

What do you think of ANA’s new first class and business class seats?

On this site we often like to put the spotlight on some small airlines that, nevertheless, invest in interesting initiatives.

Today’s the case of Surinam Airways.

Why? Because Surinam Airways is getting its first Boeing 777-200. Quite a significant capacity increase for a 3-aircraft airline (the Surinamese flag carrier also operates 2 Boeing 737-700s) serving a country of just over half a million people.

This is not the first long-haul wide-body aircraft operated by Surinam Airways, an airline that started up way back in 1953, when Surinam was still a Dutch territory. At different times in its history, Surinam Airways flew Boeing 747s and A340-300 aircraft and, prior to that, Boeing 707s and DC-8s. Mostly on the key route to Amsterdam.

The Amsterdam run is going to be, of course, what this Boeing 777-200 is for, but Surinam Airways CEO, Radjesh Radjkoemar, confirmed to us that they are looking at other potential destinations for it, such as New York (to add capacity during the high season to a route that would otherwise operated by a B737-700) or even Belgium or Germany (where Dusseldorf could be a potential destination).

New 777 Airplane

Visiting-friends-and-relatives (VFR), particularly by the numerous Surinamese community in the Netherlands, represents the main segment of passengers, but Mr. Radjkoemar mentioned also how they had seen growing interest in the leisure market (with the Netherlands being again the main market, but with Germany, the US and Brazil growing as well) and, interestingly, for traffic between Surinam and China, transiting via Amsterdam.

For the short haul, Surinam Airways relies on a pair of Boeing 737-700s (fitted with 128 seats, 8 in business and 120 in economy class.that fly to Miami (via Georgetown, Guyana) and expecting to launch flight s to New York (JFK) soon (also via Georgetown). Other regional destinations as Aruba, Port of Spain (Trinidad), Belem and Fortaleza (Brazil), the latter being also a connecting point for Air France/KLM and Brazilian airline GOL, for Europe-Brazil traffic (although Surinam Airways does not have any partnership with these airlines).

A look at Surinam Airways’ Boeing 777 cabin

The Boeing 777-200, which was operated previously by Singapore Airlines, has already been delivered to Surinam Airways, but has not entered service yet as it awaits final green-light from the local aviation authority. The plan is that it starts flying between Paramaribo and Amsterdam Schiphol in February.

It is fitted with a two class cabin, with 26 business class seats and 245 in economy (there is no Premium Economy class as such, but some of the seats at the front of the economy class cabin have extra leg room). The aircraft is also equipped with Panasonic IFE.

If all goes according to plan, Surinam Airways intends to get a second Boeing 777. This would allow them to increase frequencies on key routes and also wet-lease it to other operators in the region that may require some capacity increases during the high season.

Over the longer term, Mr. Radjkoemar confirm, the idea is for Surinam Airways to get a Boeing 787, but this has been pushed to an indeterminate date into the future.