Air France said it is introducing by the end of 2010, a "more comfortable long-haul Business Class seat - for working, resting or enjoying time on board." After examining the statistics and comfort criteria of their new seat, Skytrax question why Air France seem to have slipped up and appear to be moving backwards in terms of Quality change.
"First impressions are extremely disappointing" said Edward Plaisted, CEO, Skytrax. "To imagine that Air France has sanctioned such a large investment in product development, to introduce what will in effect be an outdated and unacceptable long-haul business class seat is a real shock. Whilst their partner airline KLM also installed a poor quality business class in the past couple of years, we had assumed that Air France would deliver an acceptable standard, that would allow them to compete with other major airlines - it seems we were wrong, having now seen the rather low-quality standard that Air France will be using for the next decade."
"It is now almost universally accepted that an airline's long-haul business class seat needs to offer a true, lie-flat capability if it is to compete commercially, and yet we see Air France investing millions of dollars in a sub-standard angled lie-flat seat" added Plaisted. "In their seat information publicity, Air France are honest enough to describe the seat as 'near-flat' - that in itself is surely going to be a real turn-off for the travellers they are expecting to pay top bucks for Business travel comfort."
Peter Miller of FlatSeats.com who specialise in reviews of airline First and Business Class seats, stated "this new Air France Business Class (Affaires) cabin looks very cramped and frankly uncomfortable, and it is hard to believe Air France are using a 2x3x2 seat layout for a new business class launch in 2010/2011. I feel very sorry for any customer finding themselves squashed into the middle seat with this new Air France business class cabin.
"First impressions are extremely disappointing" said Edward Plaisted, CEO, Skytrax. "To imagine that Air France has sanctioned such a large investment in product development, to introduce what will in effect be an outdated and unacceptable long-haul business class seat is a real shock. Whilst their partner airline KLM also installed a poor quality business class in the past couple of years, we had assumed that Air France would deliver an acceptable standard, that would allow them to compete with other major airlines - it seems we were wrong, having now seen the rather low-quality standard that Air France will be using for the next decade."
"It is now almost universally accepted that an airline's long-haul business class seat needs to offer a true, lie-flat capability if it is to compete commercially, and yet we see Air France investing millions of dollars in a sub-standard angled lie-flat seat" added Plaisted. "In their seat information publicity, Air France are honest enough to describe the seat as 'near-flat' - that in itself is surely going to be a real turn-off for the travellers they are expecting to pay top bucks for Business travel comfort."
Peter Miller of FlatSeats.com who specialise in reviews of airline First and Business Class seats, stated "this new Air France Business Class (Affaires) cabin looks very cramped and frankly uncomfortable, and it is hard to believe Air France are using a 2x3x2 seat layout for a new business class launch in 2010/2011. I feel very sorry for any customer finding themselves squashed into the middle seat with this new Air France business class cabin.