American Airlines is removing eight business-class seats from its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners as it completes a drive to add a new premium-economy offering on its biggest planes. The first plane is undergoing a retrofit and American expects all 20 of the aircraft to be finished by the middle of next year, spokesman Joshua Freed said. That caps a shift to premium economy on the airline’s wide-body fleet, except aging Boeing 767 and Airbus SE A330-300 planes that American plans to retire soon. Removing some business berths will enable the world’s biggest airline to fill the space with a larger number of premium-economy seats, which are catching on with passengers as a mid-priced option. On average, the new offering commands ticket prices that are about double the level of traditional coach class, the company said in July. “People want it and they’re paying for it,” Freed said. Business class will shrink to 20 seats on the 787-8 jets. Premium economy will have 28. The new offering has wider seats than in coach, with more legroom and foot rests. Other amenities include free entertainment on larger video screens, broader meal choices, amenity kits and a pillow and blanket.<br/>
oneworld
Qantas expects to place an order at the end of next year for aircraft that will be able to fly nonstop from Sydney to London as the Australian airline bets on strong passenger demand for direct routes. CE Alan Joyce said Qantas had always specialised “in super long-haul” given its geographic location. “We now have the aircraft to do it and be more competitive than the hub carriers by having the direct service,” he added. The company opened talks with aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus about an aircraft that could fly the 21-hour trip from Sydney to London last year. Boeing is offering the wide-body 777-8X, while rival Airbus had pitched its A350-1000, said Joyce. Talks are focusing on what both manufacturers can guarantee in terms of the performance of each aircraft and specifications required to make the 17,016km route economic. Joyce gave no indication of the potential number of aircraft Qantas might order but said in general an optimum fleet size was between 10 and 20 aircraft. The company has begun talks with its pilots and cabin crew about how the trip would affect their working conditions, as well as with the regulator.<br/>
If you’ve ever been refused boarding to a flight because your name was spelled wrong on the ticket, you might take comfort from this fairly glaring error on the side of a Cathay Pacific plane. Or should that be “Cathay Paciic”? On Wednesday, photos emerged of a plane for the Hong Kong carrier, with its distinctive green livery missing an “F”. Taking the fuselage foul-up with good grace, Cathay Pacific posted on its Facebook page: “Oops this special livery won’t last long! She’s going back to the shop!” Shown the typo, an engineer for Haeco, a sister company of the airline, was baffled by how such a mistake could have happened. The error was likely to be expensive, costing several thousand dollars to fix. It was unclear whether a Cathay Pacific engineer or someone from Haeco was to blame.<br/>