Air New Zealand will soon offer a solution that involves climbing into a triple-tier bunk bed wearing special socks.

The airline will soon open bookings for four-hour stints in the Skynest sleep pods and says they will be the first lie-flat beds for budget air travellers. 

Fliers will get cosy with their fellow passengers, however, so crumbs, strong perfumes and bedsharing are forbidden.

The curtained berths will be available to economy and premium economy fliers on the airline’s new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft from November. 

The planes will service the Auckland to New York route, which is one of the world’s longest commercial flights and leaves economy passengers sitting upright for a marathon 16 to 18 hours.

Instead, travellers will have the option of a pre-booked four-hour spot in a curtained pod, with costs starting from 495 New Zealand dollars (S$370.59) on top of the price of their economy tickets. 

But use of the six pods, arranged in a triple-bunk style layout between cabins, will put fliers in close proximity to others, prompting the airline to publish etiquette notes.

Passengers must refrain from snacking in the pods, which can’t be used by children or any additional visitors.

“That means solo snoozes only please, no musical nests or tag-teaming,” Air New Zealand’s website says. 

For those worried about cleanliness, the airline assures travellers that the pillows, blankets and sheets supplied “are all refreshed” between four-hour naps.

Fliers are also required to change into specially provided socks to enter the pod, fasten their seatbelts over their blankets and forgo dousing themselves in any smelly “perfumes or potions”.

Passengers will be woken by a gentle change in lighting at the end of their four-hour stint in the bunk — or by a flight attendant, possibly less gently, if they don’t rouse in time.

Each berth is about the length of a regular bed — 80 inches or 203cm — but the pods don’t leave headroom for sitting up and access “requires bending, kneeling, crawling, or climbing into the space,” the aircraft’s website says. 

The bunks are 64cm wide at shoulder height, tapering to 41cm at the foot of the beds.

Seats or couches that convert into beds in the sky aren’t a new offering for business and first class travellers, but Air New Zealand believes its lie-flat bunks for economy travellers will be a world first.

The offering from New Zealand’s national carrier is the latest from airlines seeking to sell seat upgrades and other add-ons to economy travellers. 

Air New Zealand first announced the economy beds were in development in 2020.

The airline has increased fares and cut some domestic flights from its schedule in response to increased jet fuel costs during the war in the Middle East. 

In March, it suspended its earnings outlook due to fuel price volatility and warned that more changes to its routes were possible.

But on one of its longest flights, travellers might finally get some shut-eye — although they should expect snoring, for which earplugs are provided, the airline said.

“Statistically, someone’s going to do it,” Air New Zealand’s website reads. “It might be you.”

Credits: Air New Zealand

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Under Japan’s roadmap, commercial passengers services using eVTOL aircraft are expected to begin in select regions by 2027 or 2028. The plan then calls for the introduction of autonomous passenger transport and more advanced traffic management systems in the early 2030s, followed by broader integration of AAM into urban transportation networks in the 2040s.

Alongside the national roadmap, regional stakeholders in Osaka have outlined a more defined deployment target. The Kansai Economic Federation aims to support the operation of approximately 100 aircraft within an 80-kilometer (50-mile) radius of Osaka Bay by 2035. The program calls for the Osakako Vertiport—the site of the World Expo flight demonstrations—to be developed into a central hub anchoring the “Diamond Routes,” a planned network connecting cities across the greater Kansai region.

SkyDrive, whose three-seat SD-05 eVTOL aircraft made its first public demonstration flight at the World Expo, is collaborating with Osaka Metro Co. on the Diamond Routes. In a March 26 statement, SkyDrive said its eVTOL program is shifting from an “experimental phase” to “implementation phase.” The start-up aims to have its aircraft operating in and around Osaka, as well as Beppu Bay in Kyushu, by 2028. Last month, the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) approved SkyDrive’s general certification plan for the aircraft.

Last year’s World Expo demonstration flights in Osaka underscored how much work remains to be done before eVTOL aircraft are ready for passenger service. None of the aircraft flying there had type certificates for passenger operations. During the exhibition, Lift Aircraft’s single-seat Hexa had demonstrations suspended after motor covers fell off mid-flight. Vertical Aerospace’s four-seat VX4, which its partner Marubeni had planned to fly in Osaka, never made it off the ground as the program’s piloted flight testing campaign in the U.K. wasn’t far enough along. SkyDrive’s SD-05 completed a series of short flights over Osaka Bay, but those flights were remotely piloted. The company has yet to fly the aircraft with a pilot on board.

Taken together, the roadmap and Osaka plan provide a clearer path to early operations, but as in other AAM markets, certification, infrastructure, and operational readiness will ultimately determine how quickly commercial service can begin.

Credits: Japan

The post Japan Targets 2027 Launch for Commercial eVTOL Flights first appeared on AircrewNews.com.