Air New Zealand premium economy Spaceseat axed

Air New Zealand is to axe the airlines current 777-300 premium economy Spaceseat

Air New Zealand is to axe the airlines current 777-300 premium economy Spaceseat, and will instead be replacing it with the same premium economy product they have on their refurbished 777-200 and select 787-9 aircraft.

Introduced in 2010 and available on ANZ's most important routes including its daily flight between Auckland and Heathrow via Los Angeles, the seat was seen as innovative due to its angled 2-2-2 layout.

But the seat was criticised for having a lack of legroom, and soon after launch the carrier was forced to remove an entire row of seats in order to increase this by up to six inches.

Now, the number of premium economy seats on the 777-300 will be increased from 44 to 54, and the change is expected to occur starting in February 2017.

This product looks like a more traditional premium economy configuration, going from a 2-2-2 configuration to a 2-4-2 configuration on the Boeing 777.

Air New Zealand's newly delivered 787-9 aircraft will have a bigger premium footprint, including 27 business class seats (rather than 18), and 33 premium economy seats (rather than 21).