Going flat out

[Gerald A]

NEARLY all the marketing buzz about the new superjumbos has focused on first-class luxury. But the real battle is for the hearts, minds and spines of business-class travellers.

Steve Creedy hard at work testing the latest business-class airborne comforts.
Things are about to get very interesting. By February, all three airlines operating the double-decker A380 will be bringing them to Australia and working hard to tempt you into their beds. The plane is at the vanguard of a push for high-yield’ passengers which has generated a vast array
of high-tech seats and cabin configurations.

Passengers can find themselves flying forwards at an angle, or backwards, as they play with computerised entertainment systems that have enough grunt to run a small company and still screen the next instalment of The Mummy series.

Interestingly, it was our own flying kangaroo that started all this back in 1979. It was then that Qantas introduced the world’s first “business class’’ service, with priority baggage collection, a private cabin with its own staff, an exclusive coat closet and an ever-open free bar service.

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