cavemanzk

Also note it looks like they have taken the option to to use 2LR (overwing exit)

nzkarit

Didn't we roughly know from when they released the seat map at investor day?

sbiddle

They announced last year after the initial engine delays that the neo would then be further delayed as they were going to wait for the cabin flex option to be available.

It'll be really interesting to see how many seats they opt for in the domestic A321 fleet if they do decide to opt for a split domestic and short haul fleet again.

Top of climb

cavemanzk

Would think an 230-240 seat would impact turn times to much for Domestic?

Does anyone know what there plans are for turning around on the Tasman routes? e.g. are they going to get AKL to allow them to do rear stair boarding like domestic?

cavemanzk

On the A321NEO seat-map now online - it mentions to in seat USB-C - wonder if these can charge an Macbook via USB-C?

https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/seat...s-a321neo-214i

Anyone know who the IFE vendor is? have seen mentions of it being a Android based system.

sbiddle

IFE vendor is Panasonic - and Android is nothing new - the Panasonic eX3 IFE on the 777s and 789s are Android based as well.

As for USB-C and whether you can charge your MacBook, and answer is very likely to be no. Do you understand what PD (power delivery) is? And why USB-C PD (and not just USB-C) is required to charge a tablet or laptop?

I wrote about this yesterday in my article on the neo, but am still to find anybody inside Air NZ who can confirm the status of the PD support. I've educated a few people there about USB-C and USB-C PD but still no closer to finding out exactly what their offering is.

I spent quite some time at CES in January talking to the Panasonic avionics guys and discussed the issue of USB-C PD. They had just deployed their first USB-C PD deployment on several Emirates aircraft and these were only 15W USB-C PD capable ports. To charge a tablet or laptop with USB-C charging you typically need a minimum of 30W PD, and need around 60W to charge these at "full" speed. While Panasonic understand this, there are some pretty significant challenges delivering up to 100W to each seat, but they indicated 30W wouldn't be far away and may be available this year.

Assuming Air NZ have 15W PD ports (which I'm picking) they will fast charge an iPhone if you have a USB-C to Lightning cable, and will fast charge most Android devices. They will not charge a laptop or tablet that requires minimum 30W PD - if you feed anything less than 30W into a laptop that has USB-C charging it will simply not charge and will normally display a message indicating the input voltage is too low.

15W PD support will create issues going forward as USB-C is finally going mainstream this year, and with the average person not understanding that not all USB-C ports are created equal will cause some confusion, especially when hose less tech savvy just expect they can plug their laptop into a USB-C port and that it'll charge. Assuming it is only 15W PD, Air NZ will probably want to make mention of this somewhere to try and avoid cabin crew having to become experts on the USB standard!

nzkarit

Hmm more seats and still three toilets...

AviationNZ

So whilst 15-30W won't charge a laptop, is it enough to hold charge? For example, if I went on board with 3/4 or full charge on my laptop and had it plugged into the low wattage USB-C PD, would it remain at 3/4 or full?

sbiddle

The answer to that is a simple "depends". It will depend on the type of device.

My HP EliteBook for example just brings up a warning if supplied less than 30W and won't draw any load nor charge the battery. Some other devices may still draw a load that may keep them running, but they'll be in the minority, not the majority.

PD makes understanding chargers a little more complex - especially with so many different types of chargers out there with different outputs - some may only do 30W, some 30 and 45W, and good ones up to 60W. There are also plenty of USB-C chargers and Powerbanks that lack PD support

mad_atta

While looking at booking flights for the holiday period, I noted that the 321neo is showing up on some AKL-SYD flights in late December. I took the opportunity to look at the seat map to check out the Space+ seats to see what the pitch was like, since the booking engine shows pitch for each individual seats. Seems like NZ has taken the opportunity to 'densify' its config, including the so-called Space+ seats.

On the current international A320s, some rows of Space+ are 86cm pitch (33.85") while the rest are 83cm (32.6"). On the A321neo:

• All the Space+ seats (ie rows 4-8ABC and 4-6DEF) are now only 81cm pitch (31.9")
• Row 10, which is a non-Space+ seat, is 86cm
• The exit rows (which cost $30, even for golds) are 99cm
• The other rows range from to a squeezy 76cm (29.9") a truly punitive 73cm (28.7").

In a final, delicious irony, every single row is marked as "better legroom"!!

The one, single thing that I like above all else about NZ's A320 product across the Tasman is that it has noticeably better personal space than the rival products - partly due to greater Airbus seat width, mostly due to the extra legroom of Space+. The A321neo product is really narrowing the comfort gap over QF and VA (see here for comparison). I understand making the back of the plane denser, since NZ is trying to run a hybrid low cost / full service model. But eroding the benefit for your most loyal customers is a mean and misguided move.

Not happy, NZ!

Note: all conversions to inches are done by me. The decimal places make them look artificially accurate - in reality the pitch in cm has clearly been rounded to the nearest whole number so may in reality be up to 0.5cm more or less.

sbiddle

Remember the seats are different design so it's hard to compare seat pitch directly. These Acro seats with a narrower pitch will deliver better legroom than the old seats using the same pitch.

Exactly how much though isn't easy to answer - and it's going to take sitting in one to form that opinion.

mad_atta

That's true... but it's likely to be a couple of cm difference at best. Definitely not 5cm difference!

NZbutterfly

"But the airline says the slimline design and curved design of the A321neo seats means passengers “sink further into the seat back creating up to 7 percent more usable space when compared with the equivalent pitch on the existing fleet”.

The middle seat will also be 3cms wider and the aisle and window seats 1cm wider. This will boost the aisle and window seats to the Airbus standard of 18 inches from the narrow 17-inch seats on the existing A320s."

https://www.airlineratings.com/news/...s-new-a321neo/

Width improves.
Leg room apparently improves due to slimline and curvature of design.
Article says it was tested with customers to incorporate their feedback. Hopefully they chose customers that know a lot about economy.

Can only wait & see.

AviationNZ

I know someone that has sat in these seats and they said it's definitely something you can't just look at the numbers to compare, and in fact, it's noticeably more comfortable and the legroom will not be any worse than current A320CEO.

Definitely going to be keen to try it on a Tasman service!