Japan Airlines upgrades Boeing 787 fleet with Sky Suite III
By David Flynn, June 22 2017
Japan Airlines will introduce its latest Sky Suite III business class seat onto the international Boeing 787-9 fleet from July.
The third-gen Sky Suite is based on the same business class design and 1-2-1 layout as popularised by Cathay Pacific.
The seats convert into a 78 inch (1.98 metre) fully-flat bed at up to 21 inches wide, with a 17 inch HD video screen.
These are the same business class seats which made their debut on JAL's long-range Boeing 777-200ER in mid-2016, and the more efficient layout will also see the Boeing 787-9's business class cabin increase from 44 seats to 52 seats.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
27 Feb 2015
Total posts 34
Are they taking the ones below out in favor of the new ones? I hope not, the original one is better
02 Mar 2013
Total posts 32
I agree, the older configuration is better but is suspect that it is less dense.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
06 Nov 2014
Total posts 358
From the text it seems that way. "Both the 787-8 and 787-9..." Apex suite is the only product available on 787-9. Then it's not upgrade, it's downgrade :(
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
They are and I agree with your assessment. The original SS1(SkySuite1) design offers much more privacy than their latest SS3.
Delta Air Lines - SkyMiles
10 Jan 2017
Total posts 1
Will these seats replace the original six-abreast first generation 787 seats, the ones without the satellite wifi?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Jul 2016
Total posts 105
Wow! Japanese airlines upgrade their products like every three years! That's the third reconfigurement for JAL on their 787 fleet.
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
@Packetman21:
20 May 2015
Total posts 579
Just to make it clear, this isn't a standard Zodiac Cirrus configuration. Its the stacked/high density Cirrus implementation where the footwells of the middle seats are vertically stacked so as to reduce the necessary pitch.
Japan Airlines - JAL Mileage Bank
09 May 2017
Total posts 12
Wait so they are getting rid of the old configuration?
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1031
This doesn't sound right.
JAL currently has 3 configs on their 787s. The first few 787-8s delivered have the old angle flat shell seats. The rest of the -8s have the "SS8" suite.
All the 787-9s have the "SS9" suite.
There are a number of different versions of the Sky Suite which are slightly different for each aircraft type ("SS*" 2/3/6/7/8/9)
It appears that this "SS9II" suite will be used on new delivery 787-9s. It does not sound like they will be ripping out the existing SS9 suite from their current 787-9s.
01 Feb 2015
Total posts 3
As rowensears raised, the real issue to me is if the angle-flat 787-8 seats will be reconfigured with the new seats or not.
JL uses those angle-flat seats on too many long distance routes, e.g., NRT-SAN (San Diego) and NRT-BKK.
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
17 Sep 2015
Total posts 371
Not correct. PR have SFO - MNL nonstops.
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