First flight for Jetstar’s renovated Dreamliner – Australian Aviation

Jetstar’s first refurbished 787-8 Dreamliner has commenced income providers after coming back from its refit in Hong Kong.

VH-VKK, which returned to Melbourne earlier this week, took off for Phuket at 3:20pm on Tuesday afternoon for its inaugural business flight post-overhaul. All 11 Jetstar Dreamliners are slated for the refit, which incorporates new seating, in-flight Wi-Fi, and crew relaxation areas with six bunks.

“The cabin transformation is exceptional, however what actually issues is what it means for our prospects – extra consolation, extra connectivity, and shortly, extra locations,” mentioned Jetstar CEO Stephanie Tully.

“We’ve invested closely on this fleet as a result of we consider our prospects deserve entry to extra low fares on longer worldwide routes, and these refurbished plane are how we ship that.

“Doubling our enterprise cabin means extra folks than ever can take off in type for much less and putting in Wi-Fi functionality provides prospects can stay absolutely related within the air.

“With the aptitude to fly as much as 16 hours, we’re now higher positioned than ever to attach our prospects to extra of the world for much less. That is simply the primary of 11 – we’re solely getting began.”

The refurbishments come forward of Jetstar launching flights to Sri Lanka later this 12 months, that are enabled by the crew relaxation services. In line with Ted Knight, head of community and fleet technique for the airline, the improve is “about offering flexibility so that individuals will pay for what they select and get a tailor-made product to go well with their wants”.

“Our 787s have an intensive community throughout Asia. They already fly to Japan, to Korea, to Vietnam and Thailand and Singapore,” he mentioned.

“A part of what we’re doing with this new cabin enhancement, and the prolonged vary that we get from the crew relaxation, is it means we will doubtlessly broaden that to additional locations.

“The primary a type of that we’re very enthusiastic about is we’re launching providers to Sri Lanka from August of this 12 months, and that for us goes to be our new longest flight. We’re actually excited to carry Jetstar to the Sri Lanka market.

“For purchasers, this new expertise on our 787 simply means they will take pleasure in low fares, nice selection, they usually can fly to extra locations.”

The present 787 seating is being changed with ergonomic designs by RECAERO Plane Seating, with the economic system seats that includes seat-back system holders, charging shops, and six-way headrests, whereas enterprise can even have system holders, energy, and headrests, plus a “beneficiant recline”.

To make room for the additional enterprise seats – 44, versus the present 21 – the overall seats throughout the entire plane will drop from 335 to 325. There can even be “new methods” for patrons, together with Membership Jetstar members, to ebook business-class seats.

Moreover, seat-back screens will probably be eliminated to cut back weight and gasoline burn, to get replaced by the system holders with in-flight Wi-Fi, mentioned Sophie Dawson, Jetstar’s program supervisor for the 787 cabin refresh.

“As a part of the cabin refresh, we have now changed each seat on board the plane. The brand new seats don’t have seat-back screens, and that’s a large optimistic for our prospects. It helps us by decreasing weight on board the plane, which lets us maintain fares low,” she mentioned.

“We’re introducing, for the primary time ever on a Jetstar plane, in-flight connectivity with a ViaSat satellite tv for pc product.

“It can stream leisure and web on to prospects gadgets, and it’s complimentary for our enterprise class passengers, and it’ll have a few completely different pricing fashions for our economic system prospects.”

All of Jetstar’s Dreamliners are anticipated to endure the refits by the tip of 2027.