The latest post-pandemic innovation coming to airlines: bunk beds

WASHINGTON (TND) — A New Zealand airline is seeking to upend the traditional bleary-eyed, half-sleep that accompanies most customers who try to get shut eye when they are seven miles in the sky.

Air New Zealand plans to add sleep-pod style bunk beds to many of their wide-body planes as those undergo a planned retrofit, as well as to a new batch of Boeing 787 Dreamliners. There will be six pods available for economy passengers to book on long-haul flights, which is defined by the International Air Transport Association as eight to 16 hours, and ultra-long-haul flights which are over 16 hours. According to The Washington Post, these bunks will be the first-ever pod-style sleep pods for any kind of flight, commercial or otherwise.

The bed idea, called “Skynest,” “was really born out of our research telling us that sleep was core to customer experience,” Leanne Geraghty, chief customer and sales officer at Air New Zealand, told the Post.

The bunks will be situated at the front of the economy section and designed like its own nook — or if they were at the front of a ship or a plane, beds angled 45 degrees towards a center point. Each, stacked three on top of the other, includes an eye mask on top of the usual accouterment, and roughly measure six feet seven inches long and around two feet wide. A small set of steps sits between the heads of the bunks to allow access to higher ones, and courtesy curtains are included.

The pods will be able to be booked in four-hour cycles — both before and ideally during flights if there are unused reservation slots — for a $400 to $500 fee. The time frame is based on the observance of human sleep patterns.

“We know that most people undergo a 90-minute REM (rapid eye movement) cycle,” Geraghty said. “So, the four-hour block allows them to have two of those REM cycles with time to wind down and then wake back up.” The crew would then have a 30-minute time frame to reset the bunks for the next cycle of sleepers.

Air New Zealand is a noted pioneer in airline sleep comfort, and the Skynest retrofit represents one end on a spectrum of sleep improvements the company is making to its aircrafts. Due to New Zealand’s more remote location, many flights out of the country fall into the long- or ultra-long-haul flight category, meaning customers would seek more opportunities to rest comfortable.

In 2010, the airline debuted the “Skycouch,” a program that would allow fliers to purchase three adjacent seats and convert that row into a bed for one person, who could lie flat across their portion of the plane.

For the most part, any sort of sleep experience that resembles or parallels restful, full lie-down bed rest is relegated to the premiere classes — business, first and beyond.

YouTuber Casey Neistat famously went viral in 2016 when he made a vlog of his experience in First Class for Emirates Airlines: the estimated $21,000 seat included a conversation of his chair into a lie-down bed he called “more comfortable” than his bed at home, as well as all-inclusive food — including caviar — drinks and even a shower. He made a similar viral video in 2019 showing the perks of Etihad Airway’s “Residence” “seat” — an estimated $38,000 one-way ticket. The residence featured a couch-sized main seat, hallway, private bathroom with shower, and a bedroom with a full-sized bed.

However, beds of the bunk size and pod-design aren’t exactly new — at least for passengers. Travel YouTuber Michael Downie noted in a review of Air Canada’s Signature Class Cabin on a flight from Vancouver to London, England — which classifies as long-haul — the crew are able to sleep in pod beds on a deck above the main passenger one.