New medium-haul seats
 

Some of us had the pleasure to take today the first flight with the new middle-haul seats:
- elegant dark blue leather
- very comfortable

The new lighting of the cabin is also a big plus.

https://twitter.com/nicolas75flyert/...75894986104832
https://twitter.com/nicolas75flyert/...12595976544257
https://twitter.com/nicolas75flyert/...19443819532288
https://twitter.com/nicolas75flyert/...18139294543872

very good job AF
 

Indeed, as said by Nicolas75, the new cabin interiors for medium-haul fleet based in CDG are very nice. We already had discussion in this forum about the new seat. Some of us (including me) saw and tried it. But this time we saw the whole cabin in the 1st retro-fitted A319 (F-GRHB) in Air France Industries facilities in TLS and had the chance to fly it during this special ferry flight TLS-CDG AF4019.

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The flight is the one in green (AF4019)

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boarding the flight :

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The new cabin with different colours for the headrest for C and Y cabins. In C, the middle seat is still blocked but there is no more tablet on the middle seat as before.

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The C cabin :

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Those new cabin interiors come with the change in medium-haul product from April 1st 2015, consisting in suppression of Premium-Eco product and with the C cabin before the curtain and Y cabin (including the "new" Eco flex) behind the curtain. Enhanced catering will be served also from April 1st.

Overall, very nice cabin, very fancy and comfortable leather seat.
Reclining, coat/jacket hanger on the side, glass handler. Nice cushions of different style/colours. Same legroom as in the current config.

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The tablet :

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All A319 will be retro-fitted by july, then it will be the turn of the A320 fleet. For the A320 fleet, it will take longer, as they also make modifcations to the rear galley. At the moment, there is no precise plan for the A321. AF wants to think about the future of this sub-fleet. If they stay, they will be retrofitted.


AF teams are very proud of this new cabin and I believe they can ^

Enjoy the pictures and enjoy flying this seat when you'll have the chance :)

Bonus pictures ;) :
- a very rare Airbus bird (the Beluga), only visible in a very few airports in the world

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- views of TLS terminal and downtown Toulouse very shortly after take-off

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- Arrival in CDG. We are awaited by AF staff and by the firemen for a water canon salute ^

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And to finish, the proud captain, 1st officer and chief pursuer ^ :)

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Bravo Air France !

A sharp look.

That said, removing the "tablet" between the J-seats seems disappointing. It was an area to leverage as you work/relax.

Hopefully this change is reversed.

Tablet is removed but seat is still blocked.

I doubt it will be reversed. Indeed, the tablet was a nice touch but the consequence was a very uncomfortable middle seat when you had to seat in (in W, or Y).

Is it too much to ask AF to look at UX solution for the blocked middle seat?

Solves the problem you are pointing at.

Seats look much like the new BA. BA is actually slightly prettier but I find it very uncomfortable and I hope that the AF one is less so. I too will be missing the central tablet (again, BA still have them on their new slimseats, even increased).

+1

By the way, what is the difference between an empty seat (even more space) and a tablet (by the way the tablet of the middle seat can be used)?

Well, the difference is that you can use the middle seat tablet to put things on (e.g. drinks etc.). Combined with the middle seat tablet, this would often allow you to share that middle space with your neighbour during much of the drinks/meal time and keep your own tablet free to use for your computer or the increased space. On many airlines, that middle tablet even has significantly deeper compartments for drinks which makes them significantly less likely to fall than from the "normal" seat back tablet.

Personally I prefer having the middle seat free to put a light bag and use the tablet to put drinks while working.

It seems that ladies also like having their handbags next to them.

If these truly are more comfortable seats (and given that KLM has been going the opposite way - replacing the comfy seats with inferior replacements) then that is a good thing for the AF passenger.

I hope that the rush of being made a fuss over by AF hasn't overtly interfered with our esteemed colleagues' appraisal of the hardware!

EDIT: perhaps "medium-haul" would have been a better title for the thread - no one likes a middle seat!!! (which also begs the question - what medium-haul routes are plied with an A318/A319?)

Don't worry, they know that when they invite FTers, they get what English people politely call Constructive feedback.

In terms of constructive feedback, I must say that pitch is not that great, especially for a 6'2 folk like me.

Personally I admit to being the other way round and preferring not to get my neighbour's belonging on the middle seat. Most people are considerate and only take half the space which is great, but I regularly fly with people who must have had a colonial spirit in another life and like to take the whole seat for themselves. In that sense, I find the central tablet a rather nice protection.

With BA new seats (the old ones have no tablet!) as with most others, passengers would still be able to put a light jacket or small items (book, phone, headset...) on their half of the middle seat (at the back and/or underneath the tablet) but I am personally thankful that this is not the case of a standard lady handbag, computer bag, etc. The new seats also have double pockets in the seat in front (hard and soft) which allows for more small goods sorting.

Thanks guys for these pics.
But you talk about new lighting in the cabin: do you mean that there are mood lights?

The seat middle tablet had another advantage. The arm rest could be moved to widen the seat.And we could also use the usual back-of-seat tablet to share with the other pax; was very useful during drink/meal service to have two tablets to share.