Latest / Best of Business / Irene King: aviation commentator on Air New Zealand launching 'world-first' economy bunks for long-haul flights

Transcript

Irene King: aviation commentator on Air New Zealand launching 'world-first' economy bunks for long-haul flights · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk ZEDB. Follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: In New Zealand has introduced its new economy sky News,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: becoming the first airline to offer these bunks style sleeping
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: pods for economy passengers on ultra long haul flights. The
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: pods can be booked for up to four hour periods
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: at a cost of four hundred and ninety five dollars.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: To discuss further, we're joined by aviation commentator Irene King
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: youda Iren, good day, Nice to chat with you. So
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: is this going to work? Do you think is this
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: going to be popular with punters on these ultra long
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: haul flights?
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's a response to our customer concerns
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: about how I'm comfortable of us on seventeen now plus
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: flights and economy. You know, I think it's the New
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Zealand sinnovative beast. You know, we like to see them
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: out doing this sort of stuff.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: There's kind of a gross out reaction we're getting from
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: mentioning them though they just sleeping right beside other people
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: or wedged in and this kind of backpacker tight little
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: backpacker cell, so and the hot bed nature of it. So,
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: so do you know actually how it works. So what
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: happens is someone's in for four hours and then there's
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: a clean out period between you being woken up and
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: moved into the into the into the cell.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look very clearly, you know, the passengers very aware
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: of what the clean out period is like. You know,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: you've got four hours to have a great risk and
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: then along comes a cleaner. Now it long comes a
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: flight attenant, and they will do it very graciously.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: So you're not sharing the shets are going to get changed, yeah,
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: the change the bedding.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, look I can understand it. I have
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: really bad reaction myself to people was to the next
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: to people with smelly feet. You know, when you've done
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: the well, it's just a matter where you are in
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: the aircraft. But this is a response to customer demand.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: You know, you've got an economy there sitting in some
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: of those seats for seventeen hours. It will turn off people. Now,
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: the thought of being able to have a reasonable rest,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: you know, that will excite and ignite some people to
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: choose that option. And really, when you think about it,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: you know it's not that much more expensive than what
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: you're already going.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: So say, how close does it get to your premium
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: economy price if you're adding another four hundred and ninety
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: five dollars.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Imagine the imagine for memories about two and a half
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: times in you sorry, that's business class premium economies, but
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: probably one in three quarters. Yeah, so you know there's
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: some good margins there. But the thing is, even in
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: premium economy, you know, you're still sitting upright, and as
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: long as you've got those net rest things, it's it's
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: quite comfortable. Seventeen hours, pretty ecky, I think.
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: Is there how many of these pods will be what
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: are they called sorry, sky nests? Will there be per
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: per plane?
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: I think it's I think it's six or eight. I
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: think it's six, you know, in the right down, I think,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: And they're probably a very you know, a much quiet
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: and more comfortable space in there. The thing when you're
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: trying to sleep on aircraft, it's almost jolly noisy. You know,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: there's always something going on or switched on and switched
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: off things. So they will be more comfortable.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: Top and tailing not allowed.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: No, no, there would be a safety.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: Consider right, yeah, so you're in it and you're strapped in,
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: so you're you're buckled in there.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah wow, oh yeah, absolutely, you know that that's turbulence
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: is always a yeah, you know, an unknown and sometimes
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: very unforgiving.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Would there be soundproofing involved in these bunk beds, you know,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: I mean maybe not individual soundproofing, but soundproefing from the
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: rest of the caven It.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Wouldn't it be nice?
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Might be needed?
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, I can speak. So you know, if you've
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: ever slip dunk tried to sleep on an aircraft with
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: somebody snoring, it's pretty interesting. Yeah, you know, I think
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: there will obviously be some increased noise suppressents. But the
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: thing is that these you know, dreamline is that they
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: deploy on these ultra long haul routes. They tend to be,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: you know, a state of the art aircraft anyway, so
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: you are getting some some noise suppressants go on.
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: Anyway, if I paid four hundred and ninety five dollars,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: then I've seen how small they are, how close you are.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: If you get some snoring foghorn with stinky feet, you
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: know they're going to be half a meter away from you.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Not even that I can see.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: Kevin Cruise getting you know, there could be some I mean,
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: as the admin for Kevin crew, that's what I feel for.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean at the end of Zealand FEMA Suburban,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: how they deal with grumpy passengers. I mean sort of
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: planet of their modus operando.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: Really, that's true.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: They're all over the plane, right, absolutely right, you can.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: I imagine you'd be quite severed if you've got off
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: the end and you know, you paid for ninety nine
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: and all you've got was thinking even somebody snoring, you know,
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: you wouldn't be wouldn't be impressed.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, as all four ninety five, because I guess there'd
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: be better times to go right at the start, maybe
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: not the best time to go in like across seventeen hours.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: I guess there'll be probably three. Yeah, I'd say the
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: last year would be the one to get.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hard to say. You know, it depends on
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: have you come off a connecting flight for examples, and
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: these lights come out of Australia, so you know you've
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: got jet leg time zones, all sorts of things going on,
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: and when you you know, when you prefer sleep. That's
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: the other thing, you know, I don't know whether I'd
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: like to be awaken from the South Cleeve the end
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: of the trip, just to know, you know. I mean,
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: but the thing is that you're going to have choice,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: and you can buy at once. If it doesn't work,
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: don't do it again, you know, So you've got choices.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: I would I would be considered your seat. Yeah, that's true. Iren,
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: I'd be worried about sleeping pressure. You get in there
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: and you're paying the money and you go go to sleep.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Now this is my four hours going to cost me
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: five hundred bucks.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: I've got to do it.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, the psychology of sleep. You might find that
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: some of those those tablets you can take, people will
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: be taking those down, drinking heaps of water and hoping
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: that they sleep.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Yeahtimes, yeah, exactly. Just on the idea of upgrades in general, Irene,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: what's your view on that. Is that more popular than
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: ever people upgrading, or in the climate that we're in,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: people are choosing more to to rough it for lack
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: of a better word.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: No, Look, the upgrades are really positive because normally are
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: on your ear points or something like that, so you
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: sort of feel like you have already paid.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: For it, and so that's a good one. If I
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: could upgrade to a NISS just on my points, that
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: then that that becomes a that becomes a good option.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, And it's a great way of the carrier wiping
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: up their air points because you know, they the liabilities
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: that's on their balance sheet. People don't realize that.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: But yeah, right, that's interesting.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: So it's a good way of changing the dynamics.
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: Yip.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Irene, thank you very much for in a chat
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: with us. Really interesting that is aviation commentator Irene King.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks B listen live on air
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: go with our podcasts on IR Radio.