An Italian manufacturer is promising to give economy passengers a better inflight experience with new aircraft seat that turns an entire row into a bed.
Sound familiar? It should, it’s a lot like Air New Zealand’s SkyCouch or China Airlines’ Family Couch.
The Italian company is hoping to make the comfortable and spacious economy seats a little more widespread with its own version of the design.
Called the ‘Piuma Sofa’, it allows passengers to convert three or four seats into a ‘sleeper sofa’ by raising the armrests, removing the headrests and placing an extension at the base of the seat cushion.
The design was unveiled at an aircraft expo in Germany last week and is designed to give guests better sleep than they would sitting upright.
Unfortunately, in order to use the ‘Piuma Sofa’ guests would either have to book the entire row, which would cost a little extra, or cross their fingers that the flight is empty enough for them to have an entire row to themselves.
Air New Zealand already has something similar, the SkyCouch.
Also, not every row would have a sofa, so they’d also have to select the right row in advance or hope they just end up in the right spot on the aircraft.
South African Airways is believed to be the first airline to order the special seating along with Air Asia X. The first deliveries are expected in October, Daily Mail reported.