Bigger seats for Iberia

Iberia have finally given in to the inevitable, and turned it's existing business class seats into fully flat beds.

Iberia have finally given in to the inevitable, and turned it's existing business class seats into fully flat beds. It's achieved this by ripping out a row of seats in the front cabin of its A340 aircraft, which means the seats can be spaced out more, and so it can then increasing the recline of these seats.

This means the Spanish flag carrier will finally achieve fully flat beds, and increase the space between each row by 11.5 inches. This, in the words of the airline "enables each seat to recline into a fully horizontal sleeping position". To date, three aircraft have been altered, with the remaining aircraft due to be changed by next March. These aircraft serve America (both North and South) from Spain.

However, there will be a knock on effect on the revenue Iberia will generate with each flight, with 10 seats per aircraft taken out, reducing the number of comfortable Business Class seats in Iberia's A340-600 to 42, and on the A340-300s down to only 36 seats.

The changes to Business Plus come within the framework of the Spanish airline's 150 million-euro Total Customer Care Programme. Under the programme Iberia will also fully remodel the Business Class lounges in Madrid-Barajas airport, add limousine services at the airports of Buenos Aires, SÃÆ'Æ'£o Paulo, and Mexico City, offer on-line check-in to all destinations and boarding via mobile phone, and add new features to the Iberia Plus frequent flyers' programme, including a new Platinum membership card.