The rock and the hard place

AirAsia, which has ordered the largest number of A330neos for its long-haul AirAsia X subsidiaries, showed off its first A330-900neo at the show, and indeed the new is very much like the old: 12 angled lie flat seats up front, though from a different supplier than before, while down the back it’s 365 of the ultra-narrow seats in the same 3-3-3 configuration that Cebu Pacific will use. That said, AirAsia features quite decent legroom that measured 32”, and with new seats this is actually an improvement on before.

Crucially, these high-density layouts are very much for airlines such as Cebu Pacific and AirAsia X — so far, anyway, with Airbus making waves with suggestions that this sort of configuration, with seats some half an inch narrower than even the 10-abreast Boeing 777 or nine-abreast 787, could see renewed interest from airlines.

But back to the A330neo at the show.

Virgin Atlantic ordered 14, featuring Rolls-Royce engines that one has to assume come with a hefty discount, a fruit basket and a nice note apologising that Virgin’s last set of Rolls engines stopped their 787-9s from doing much rolling at all.

On that note, the new neos are expected to replace the older A330-200 and -300 aircraft in the fleet, including the -200s the airline had to bring in to replace the 787-9s, and are expected to be rather lower density than the long-haul, low-cost version, with the usual Virgin Atlantic glitz, glamour and slightly above average fundamentals of passenger experience.

That sort of option was also on offer at the Paris Air Show, with an A330 from the national carrier of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius on show. Air Mauritius’s A330neos are in a very comfortable layout with 28 business class seats, the Stelia Solstys staggered model offering direct aisle access that readers may well be familiar with as the previous generation of Etihad long-haul business class.

Two hundred and sixty economy class seats — some hundred fewer than AirAsia X’s A330neo — are in the more comfortable 2-4-2 layout and pitched at a generous 32”, with wide inflight entertainment screens and a restful colour scheme.

Airbus is smart to have shown both orders and display aircraft spanning quite so wide a range of carriers, especially as it works on its arguments that the A321neo and the A330neo have the middle of the market between a ‘rock and a hard place’, to quote chief commercial officer Christian Scherer.

The ‘rock’ of the A321neo, meanwhile, got a huge boost with the announcement of the 4,700nm A321XLR version of the family, up from the 4,000nm A321LR.

Here, too, passenger experience questions are rife, with the initial reaction from many passengers to the idea of flying for 10hours in a narrowbody aircraft ranging from bemusement to horror.

Passengers are particularly concerned about lavatories, it seems, with their number and location to avoid queues in the single aisle coming up for much discussion. Airbus has a mid-cabin lavatory to swap in for three seats to fix this problem, but it needs to say so. Your author only discovered this new loo option after speaking in depth with the cabin experts at Airbus.

A key step, though, will be business class seating, where the majority of narrowbody aircraft offer either the Thompson Vantage staggered seat in its alternating 1-1, 2-2 configuration (as seen on Aer Lingus, TAP Air Portugal, Flydubai and others), or the Collins Aerospace Diamond seat in its slightly angled 2-2 overlapping layout (as seen on American, Delta and United, for example).

American Airlines says it will install seats with direct aisle access on its A321XLRs, and indeed it has skin in the game here with Safran Cirrus outward-facing herringbones in first class on its domestic transcontinental fleet of A321s. Numerous other herringbones – likely to be the best option overall – should in theory also be feasible.

In hindsight, Airbus made a misstep in not including a series of slides illustrating the A321XLR passenger experience airlines can choose from. The airframer has done a lot of work to upgrade the A321neo interiors, partly through the Airspace cabin refresh with its bigger bins, modern entryway and updated look and feel, but also with new monuments and stowage options. It has worked with seatmakers and other suppliers to add new features.

It just needs to remember to tell people about them.

‘Airbus is smart to have shown both orders and display aircraft spanning … a range of carriers’