Continental Ups Biz Class Ante
Continental Airlines next month will begin revamping its BusinessFirst premium product in an effort to secure business traffic, a strategy not yet employed by other major carriers since Sept. 11. In an announcement this morning during the airline's corporate advisory board meeting in New York, president Larry Kellner said the overhauled product--highlighted by new, wider seats with greater recline--will be installed on all Boeing 777s operating on transatlantic and transpacific routes.
"While other carriers have cut costs by eliminating cabin comforts, Continental continues to invest in our product to make flying more comfortable for our customers," Kellner said. "Our investment in new BusinessFirst seats is consistent with our long-term strategy to attract and retain lucrative business travelers by providing a high-quality product and superior customer service."
The seats themselves, 22 inches in width, will be an inch wider than current BusinessFirst seats and the widest business class seat in the world, according to Continental. The seats will recline 170 degrees, providing passengers with more than six feet of sleeping space.
The electronically controlled seats are just one element of the BusinessFirst product, which also includes new privacy hoods, dual reading lights, power ports, personal entertainment systems, satellite phones, gourmet dining menu, concierge service and airport club access.
Improvements to BusinessFirst have been on the drawing board for two years, following Continental's review of competitive first class/business class hybrids, such as Delta's BusinessElite (BTN, Feb. 22, 1999). The carrier used "focus groups of key business customers" to determine seat width and sleep comfort as the top requests from passengers.
Continental uses B777s to serve Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London Gatwick, Manchester, Paris, Tel Aviv and Tokyo Narita from its hubs in Houston and Newark. However, the new seats also were designed for installation in the carrier's B757 and B767 fleets.
Northwest Airlines, meanwhile, revealed to Business Travel News that it is in the planning stages of a similar business class seat product that "will be competitive or exceed that of other airlines," said Northwest spokesperson Kurt Ebenhoch. "We're in the process of considering the different business logistics involved in deployment."