Jetstar’s Dreamliners go in for the long haul

“There was a lot of care that has gone into picking up the seat design and seat comfort. We ran a lot of customer councils as well, where we invited a lot of customers to come in and help us pick the seat, the seat design, and seat comfort as well. So, a lot of activities got done to get where we are now. It was roughly about two years’ time from ideation to first delivery of VKK in March.”

Starting with VH-VKK, Jetstar’s 787-8 fleet has been travelling to Hong Kong this year for a cabin refresh. Gone are the old seats with their in-flight entertainment screens, replaced by a new product from RECARO with device holders and on-board Wi-Fi – but not only that, the installation of a new crew rest area has already unlocked destinations like Colombo in Sri Lanka, with even longer flights potentially on the horizon.

“Usually by mid-life cycle, or as you may call it, 13 years, you have to do a massive structural check into the aircraft,” says Singh. “This is usually seen as the best opportunity to refresh your cabin, because you have to remove all of your existing cabin and inspect the condition of the aircraft anyway. So, the main idea was to align that timing with the major structural check and reinvest life into our aircraft. You do the cabin modification at the same time as well.”

Shut-eye in the sky

According to Singh, the addition of the crew rest – comprising six lie-flat bunks at the rear of the aircraft – was a major goal for the refits.

“The existing configuration doesn’t have a cabin crew rest. So, by us installing a lie-flat crew rest, it’s a great value add for our staff, but also it allows us to now fly further,” he says. “In the old configuration, they could fly up to 12 hours, but now, having the crew rest installed, we can fly this aircraft further to 16 hours.”

The crew rest area replaces the former arrangement where cabin crew took up seats in the economy section, and pilots in the business section, separated from the passengers by curtains – this not only gives the crew better sleep, but frees up those seats as well.

“Now, they can go into a crew rest area, which is secure, safe,” says Singh. “They have a lie-flat bed, and it goes quite dark, and it’s a bit of noise reduction as well, so they’re actually having really good, proper rest; they’re very alert during the flight as well, and it helps managing the fatigue quite significantly. So, if anyone’s flying, you know nine-hour, 10-hour flights, those are average, this has given a lot of comfort and ability to the crew to have a proper rest during their breaks.

“In our technical terms, we call it a Class A crew rest. This allows us to go more further. So, within 16 hours, if you draw a circle, we can pretty much hit all of the West Coast US if we want to. It opens a lot of Asian markets where our existing aircraft couldn’t go, and we can hit some parts of Eastern Europe as well, Middle East, South Africa, South America – in other words, we can pretty much align with Qantas’ 787s now.”

More room at the front

Meanwhile, atypically for a low-cost carrier, Jetstar’s new cabin actually has fewer seats than the old configuration – down from 335 to 325. There are now 281 economy seats, but significantly, business class has expanded from 21 to 44, allowing for more premium passengers at the pointy end.

“The main changes for passengers include the doubled seat capacity in business class,” says Singh. “So currently, we have 21 seats, and we’ve gone up to 44, so there is a more offering for the premium travellers, and we have put in quite a few of special touch-ups in the seat design as well because now we can fly further.

“We’ve put in a lot of attention in making and providing more comfort in those seats, and the biggest item for the customers is now our aeroplane will also have Wi-Fi internet available in the aircraft, so the passengers can stay connected with their loved ones on the ground while they’re in the air. The other one to add is a high-power USB charging as well, so it’s basically a USB-C 60-watt charging point in the aircraft that pretty much charges your laptop if you need to, and charges your devices more quickly than the existing offering.”

Somewhat controversially, Jetstar has also ditched its seat-back entertainment system on the 787s, replacing the screens with device holders to allow passengers to connect their own phones and tablets to the newly installed ViaSat Wi-Fi. This allows not only internet access, but streaming of the same Jetstar entertainment content that used to be accessible on the seat-back screens.

“The second part is also then streamlining costs,” says Singh. “So, the seat-back IFE, that is very onerous in terms of engineering maintenance and upkeep as well. That was looked at as a transformation to see where we can streamline our maintenance and eventually reduce the cost to the business, and also be able to offer the customers cheaper fares because this cost line is going to be lighter.

“Also, removing that IFE – that system was already becoming obsolete – the supplier was no longer going to be able to support that system, which then basically just adds to a lot of complexity. So, the easiest option was to just remove that and align with one system. It also significantly reduces the overall weight of the aircraft, which then results in a lot of fuel cost savings, which then we pass on to the customers through reduced fares.”

With all that said, the most important question is: how are customers receiving it? According to Singh, very well.

“The feedback from the cabin has been amazing. We’ve been closely watching our Net Promoter Score, or NPS. We are getting great feedback on the comfort and the new cabin feeling from the customers as well, and we’re getting really good feedback on customers using our Wi-Fi and having that connectivity option while they are airborne.”

Jetstar is aiming to have all of its Dreamliners refreshed by the end of 2027 – so watch this space.

The reporter travelled as a guest of Jetstar.