Photos: Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner economy class seats

Qantas will treat its Boeing 787 economy class passengers to an extra inch of legroom over the airline's flagship A380 superjumbo, along with mod cons such as an iPad stand built into each seat.

As previously tipped, the red-tailed Dreamliner will have 166 economy seats arranged in a 3-3-3 layout.

The 32 inch seat pitch – the distance measured from any point on one seat to the same point on the seat in front or behind it – is one inch more than the Qantas Airbus A380's economy seats.

And that one extra inch makes quite a difference, not just in legroom but in knee-room.

It's two inches more than the economy seating on Jetstar's Boeing 787, and along with a six inch seat recline sees Qantas ranking among the more generous Dreamliner economy cabins.

That's in line with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce's earlier pomise of "some very good seat pitch for economy seats given the the lengths we’ll be flying," with an eye towards the Boeing 787-9 unlocking long-range direct flights into Europe, North America and potentially non-stop between Perth and London.

The seat, manufactured by Recaro and designed by David Caon, is considered the next generation of Qantas' current A380 and A330 economy seats.

There's a slight difference between the width of the superjumbo and Dreamliner economy seats, however: the former is 17.5 inches wide, the latter a trim 17.2 inches. We don't suspect anybody's going to notice they're getting 0.3 inches (0.76cm) less.

Directly beneath the 12 inch touchscreen video display lurks a concealed nook for holding small personal items – reading glasses, a small amenity kit and what-not.

The door to this space swings down to become a stand for your tablet or smartphone, which can be topped up during the flight via the adjacent high-power USB socket (there's also a shared universal AC outlet between the seats).

Two mesh pockets below the fold-out tray table provide extra stowage for a water bottle and smaller personal items, with a foot net offering additional foot support.

"When we were designing the seat, one of the first things we wanted to do was to make sure we could get as much storage in there as possible" Caon tells Australian Business Traveller.

"Something else we thought really intensely on was the ability to get some rest and a good night's sleep, so that comes with space and also how you deal with things like light."

This in turn drove the decision to integrate a small 'mood light' into each seat as an alternative to the standard personal reading light, to provide some illumination without bothering other passengers.

"One of my bugbears when I'm in economy is if somebody puts that overhead light on it can be quite bright," Caon shares, "so we added the mood lighting."

Also read:

• Qantas Boeing 787 business class revealed
• Qantas Boeing 787 premium economy remains a mystery
• Here's what we know about the Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner

David Flynn

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.