New Cathay Economy Seats - Genius!

I just spotted this photo of the new Cathay Pacific Economy layout on JP.net

http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6076694&nseq=0

I think it's a pretty smart decision to make the economy seats into a shell-type seat. I'm sure everyone on here has had terrible experiences of the person in front of them reclining at the most inconvenient times, and it looks as though these seats will avoid that problem completely. They look very comfortable, but I'm curious as to how well the "built-in" recline feels.

those seats must cost a pretty penny each

Just an fyi this isn't a brand new cabin. Cathay has been installing these seats fleet wide for a year now. The last time I flew them the 747 I was on had the new seats. They aren't bad at all; the seats recline by the seat pushing forward which allows the back to recline. the problem is it moves you're knees a couple inches closer to the seat in front of you limiting legroom a touch. So while you don't have the entire seatback reclining into you, you're seat cushion moves forward a bit. There coach cabins are very comfortable and the in-flight service is fantastic.

I literally opened my computer to do some editing from spotting at the MSP terminal and at the second i opened my screen, they reclined. It made me angry.

Does an aircraft lose a lot of room for seats with such seating? Looks like it could be a real comfortable alternative.

i like the idea of the contourable head cusion. i usually sleep on the plane and yesterday had the toughest time staying asleep. even with a pillow it was hard to get comfortable because i had to keep my head up and out of the other person's lap.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mirrodie

Does an aircraft lose a lot of room for seats with such seating? Looks like it could be a real comfortable alternative.

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I would think the footprint of the seats would be identical, I think seats like this and the new Virgin Atlantic ones (bottom tilts in addition to back reclining) are ways of keeping the amount of seats the same while making passengers feel like a row or two has been removed.