Going forwards – backwards

Try a 1. 2m wide double-bed, a separate Poltrona Frau leather loveseat and an ensuite bathroom with its own shower – plus hot and cold running staff in the form of your own butler.

It’s clear that there’s a new Middle East arms race for the front of the plane.

First class flyers without the need for a two-seater can opt for the First Class Apartment concept, which alternates forward and backward facing seats plus full length beds perpendicular to the direction of travel, with just one bed on each side of the A380’s upper deck.

Elsewhere in the UAE, Emirates had previously kept schtum on any upgrade to its own first class product, which is looking a little long in the faux-wood-panelled tooth, but quickly issued an “oh yes, we’re working on that too” statement. Let’s hope for slightly less bling.

But all the superlatives aside, Etihad’s A380 is notable for the return of two previously-eschewed elements in the passenger experience: separate products for sleeping and seating, and rear-facing seats.

Separate seats and beds were a bygone of the golden pre-jet age of aviation until Lufthansa revived the concept for its 2011 refit of the 747‑400. Keeping its first class upstairs rather than in the nose (where the top seats are on its newer 747-8I aircraft), Lufthansa installed a plush recliner seat in the aisles and a full-length single bed by the window.

(In a telltale sign of the different markets the German and Gulf airlines are aiming for, Lufthansa is now removing first class entirely from its 747- 400s in favour of the full flat business class seat it launched in 2011 – a seat inferior to the A380 business seats on any of the Gulf airlines. ) The concept makes sense: a chair that doesn’t have to transform into a bed is probably better at being a chair than one that does, and the type of support required when seated is different to what you want when you’re lying down.

That’s one reason the “flip-over” type beds designed by Virgin Atlantic and Singapore Airlines are popular among their fans: the structures and padding on the mattress side are different to the seat side. But as a recliner chair, flip-over beds lack the recline range of competitor products from Qantas and British Airways. As ever, it’s a tradeoff. It’s clear that there’s a new Middle East arms race for the front of the plane. Rear-facing seats also make a reappearance on Etihad’s A380, both in business and first class. Nearly 15 years ago, British Airways was the first airline to figure out that humans are essentially triangular – wider at the shoulders than they are at the feet – and its 2000 version of Club World introduced both flat beds in business and the yin-yang style of seating where your feet are by your neighbour’s head.

After a 2006 BA refresh (to the current generation of Club World), no other airline picked up the idea of yin-yang alternating seats until this year, when American Airlines announced that its Boeing 777-200ER seats would not be the same Cathay Pacific-designed Zodiac Cirrus seats installed on its Boeing 777-300ERs. Instead, AA’s new seats maintain the reverse herringbone alignment and direct aisle access so popular with Cirrus fans, but alternate forward and backward facing seats.

Similarly, Etihad’s new ‘Business Class Studios’ are an evolution of the Airbus Group’s Sogerma Solstys seat seen elsewhere on Etihad’s widebody fleet, but maximise width at shoulder level by alternating the seat direction. Unlike British Airways’ rear-facing window and middle seats, the rear-facing Studios are on the aisle aboard Etihad’s aircraft.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the one thing to filter down from the upper deck of Etihad’s A380 to the way the rest of us travel were the rear-facing seats: head-impact certification is one of the pressure points for certification of new economy seating as padding is removed for weight and space reasons.

So if you end up facing backwards in economy in a few years, just close your eyes, try to ignore your knees, and pretend you’re facing backwards in the pointy end.