The journalists of the Runway Girl Network secured exclusive access to the A350 cabin of the New Production Standard variant of the airframer's A350 twinjet. There is a lot to consider after spending about an hour with the executives.
There is a lot of good news in the galley and lavatory. Both the flight attendants and the designers of the aircraft should be happy with the work that has been done by the manufacturer.
The option for a larger lavatory ahead of door 1L is great news for passengers with reduced mobility. This could allow for a properly accessible bathroom. Premium economy and business class get an extra four inches of cabin width, although there are no new seating options taking advantage of the new width.
The way in which the resculpted sidewalls enable a slightly less uncomfortable experience in the ten-abreast 3-4-3 economy configuration was previously only taken up by budget carriers.
Few outside the industry will notice the differences. The frames are changed to an extent that only the most attentive of experts would be able to tell. Flight attendants have a disappointing tendency to slam them to full black when they want passengers to fall asleep and stop bothering them, but they do at least go very dark, and are easily swapped out if they fail.
The extra four inches in the economy will make the nine-abreast A350 even better.
The A350s have a 4′′ wide cabin. The image is of an aircraft.
It is the 3-4-3 that is driving this, not the other way around. Though ten-abreast on an A350 still cannot be said to be a product that is suitable for a full-service carrier at full-service pricing, the design and management of this makes the budget airline experience better.
In terms of comfort levels, the more fully featured seats with advanced kinematics and shin space sculpting were more comfortable than the rest of the seats in the mock up.
With the proviso that we are talking 1-2 rows of each seat vendor's product, the rows of seats looked normal, more so than expected.
Not one row of nine-abreast seating was installed on the aircraft, so no direct comparisons were made between the new seats and the old ones.
17” of seat width can be found between the armrest. The armrests are thin, but the airframer has learned from the ridiculous designs of the A380 cabin. They look within proportion for a 2020s-era seat. This is amazing.
Even for larger passengers, the aisles are not narrow. The cabin is very tight at the shoulder level by the windows, which makes it difficult to open them. The passengers at the shoulders are likely to feel hemmed in, especially at the window seats, where their shoulders do not line up with an actual window.
The window side of the triples has a reduced part count that would allow for a small amount of extra comfort.
People with bigger feet have the biggest problem at foot level. The structure of the leg takes up most of the foot space in the window seat. One third of the seat's legroom is affected by this. The A380 eleven-a-breast seat is problematic and will not be accepted by some passengers.
For airlines that do not want to have to work with two different sets of seat track positions on the A350, Airbus has not changed them to allow for one foot to be placed either side of the seat triples leg structure. We couldn't fit our feet between the seat leg and the side wall because our feet were too big. She wiggled in, side-on, when she was told that her feet did indeed fit. Some passengers appreciated being able to put their foot up on the rising leg structure during testing. This was very hopeful.
Adding an extra person in every row makes the ten-abreast option difficult to use. Seatmakers have made improvements to the modern cabin since, for example, the introduction of ten-abreast seating on the Boeing 777. In terms of comfort, the feel was similar to that of a first- generation 3-4-3 Boeing 777.
While the seats are narrower and less comfortable in ten-abreast than in nine-abreast, Airbus has done a good job in keeping the cabin tight but manageable. Even if the environmental arguments made for the move seem very questionable, an 11% seat count bonus is still nothing to be concerned about.
There is a question about what Boeing has done with the widened cabin of the 777X. The A350 works out to just under an inch per passenger in ten-abreast. If Boeing can increase the 3-4-3 experience of the generation, the difference between it and the A350 will widen.
RGN understands that the first aircraft to be delivered with the new specification is likely to be a Spanish carrier in the nine-abreast configuration. There were no responses to requests for information about this cabin.
The additional reporting was done by fintan Horan-Stear.
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The image was credited to the aircraft manufacturer.
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