Runway Girl

04/01/2025

For as long as your author been writing about the space, there have been countless airline promises to offer a “personalized” experience, whether through the booking channel, at the airport, or more crucially via the inflight entertainment system.

But few airlines have made genuine attempts to actually personalize anything that matters, and fewer still have actually been successful.

On a pair of recent flights, Delta Air Lines showed what’s possible, as a starting point, with its Delta Sync seatback graphical user interface enabled.

While the amount of personalization pales in comparison to what many companies have been doing on the ground for a long time, it was the first instance where I observed an airline successfully doing something in this regard that made the experience appreciably better.

Full report: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/how-delta-sync-seatback-demonstrably-improves-paxex/

03/31/2025

“Third places” like onboard bars and lounges are beloved by some passengers, even as seats become more spacious and private. It’s understandable — drinking with others is more fun than drinking alone, after all — but it does raise some issues for the future of cabin design.

For airlines and their cabin designers, creating widebody flagship cabins for A350s and 777s rather than A380s and 747s means that they need to get more inventive with space for “third places”.

Might a combined third space for business class and premium economy make sense?

Full story: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/third-place-after-the-end-of-inflight-bars/

03/28/2025

Virgin Atlantic is opening a new Clubhouse lounge for its Upper Class passengers and frequent flyers at Los Angeles LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal, and it’s a doozy.

Mixing LA and the UK, the new Clubhouse is a moodlit, intimate space that’s an absolute masterclass in lounge design, aesthetics — and functionality.

In true LA fashion, who better to welcome you into this veritable castle of a lounge than Alan Cu***ng, fresh from a double Emmy win for The Traitors, and resplendent in a velvety red corduroy suit, introducing the lounge, and indeed the Upper Class onboard passenger experience inside the airline’s Airbus A330neo.

Full story: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/plush-new-virgin-lax-clubhouse-plugs-in-to-uk-la/

All images credited to Virgin Atlantic

03/27/2025

As part of the Airbus Summit this week, the European airframer revealed two sets of technology trees that will affect the very nature of commercial aviation in the future: one set for its next-generation narrowbody aircraft, and one set for its hydrogen-powered aircraft concept.

Full story: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/airbus-hydrogen-next-gen-narrowbody/

All images credited to Airbus

03/25/2025

Eager to experience spring break in Miami for the first time, a college friend and RGN contributor Reilly Oatridge decided to book a cheap and cheerful roundtrip from Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) on Spirit Airlines.

While they were grateful to get down to Florida for peanuts on Spirit, it came with a few sacrifices, along with the discovery that Spirit’s Wi-Fi is superb — if expensive. Full report: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/spirit-wi-fi-impresses-in-nearly-every-way-except-price/

03/24/2025

Panasonic Avionics will integrate Flightradar24’s live airline fleet data into its Arc™ moving map platform for inflight entertainment under a newly announced partnership with the Swedish company.

“Exciting Update! We’re taking flight data to new heights with Flightradar24. Our Arc™ maps will soon feature Flightradar24, the world’s most popular flight-tracking service,” Panasonic Avionics revealed in a LinkedIn post.

“This collaboration will transform how passengers experience live flight information.”

Full story: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/panasonic-avionics-to-add-flightradar24-live-airline-fleet-data-to-arc-map/

All images of Panasonic Avionics' Arc™ map platform credited to Panasonic Avionics

03/21/2025

The opening of the Tohoku Shinkansen in 1982, and its many subsequent extensions and branches, brought the northernmost third of Japan’s main island of Honshu immeasurably closer to Tokyo in travel terms. Since then, the line has been at the forefront of innovation in high-speed rail, with the latest being the E10 Series Shinkansen train, with livery and interiors designed by tangerine, planned to enter service in 2030.

New renderings are out, and while there is a certain artistic licence clearly visible — not least in that there is only one single track visible, yet the Tohoku Shinkansen line is all double-tracked) — they’re impressive and instructive.

A clear evolution of the 2011-era E5 Series Shinkansen, the E10 retains the iconic duckbill-nosed train design on the front cars that reduces tunnel boom. This is especially important on the heavily tunneled sections of the line north of Utsunomiya, where JR East is planning to increase the maximum speed from 320 km/h (200 mph and the E5’s current maximum operating speed) to 360 km/h (225 mph).

Intriguingly, while tangerine is continuing the green livery theme from the predecessor E5 Series on the nose, this is now matched with a dark black for most of the sides of the cars. That’s a surprising choice for this region of Japan, since while deep winter temperatures can be chilly, summer temperatures swelter for months on end, and darker liveries require a lot more air conditioning than lighter ones.

Full story: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/tangerine-designs-e10-shinkansen/

All images credited to Tangerine/JR East

03/19/2025

Right after this year’s Paris Fashion Week, it’s the turn of Air France’s new first class seat to head down the runway, and it would receive a full two nods — perhaps even a smile? — from The Devil Wears Prada’s Miranda Priestly.

Air France’s very concept of La Première first class has long revelled in its elegant simplicity, taking an opposite point of view to many showier, flashier suites with its high curtain instead of heavy, bulky walls.

Its new first class seat from Stelia Aerospace maintains this principle, even as striking as it is in its size and its simplicity of design, replacing the chair that converts into a bed with a separate armchair and chaise longue (amusingly for linguists, in French this type of furniture is called a méridienne) that converts into a full two metre (6’7”) bed.

Full story: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/air-frances-new-stelia-first-class-a-paragon-of-elegant-simplicity/

All images credited to Air France.

03/17/2025

Cathay Pacific, a oneworld alliance member, is the de facto flag carrier of Hong Kong. Known for its quality service, the carrier recently launched its new flagship business suite Aria, a modern product that ensures Cathay retains its high standing in the aviation world.

On the ground, Cathay’s lounges are also very highly regarded, but is the airline also moving with the times? I had the opportunity to explore its lounge collection in February 2025, where I discovered a clear differentiation of the spaces.

Full report: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/cathay-hong-kong-business-lounges/

03/17/2025

At Southwest, bags will soon fly for a fee for many customers https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/at-southwest-bags-will-soon-fly-for-a-fee-for-many-customers/

03/14/2025

The growth in mid-haul and long-haul flying by single-aisle aircraft, especially the A321neo and its LR/XLR variants, means that the importance of creating business class offerings that go beyond simple recliners is growing commensurately.

The “recliner-plus” category allows airlines to narrow the experience gap between, say, a full suite widebody product and what otherwise resemble a premium economy seat on a narrowbody — especially important as the range overlap between narrowbodies and widebodies increases too.

Enter Collins Aerospace’s Air Rest, a fixed-back shell seat that slides forward into an excellent z-bed rather than going flat. It has, somehow, been seven years since this journalist first sat in the seat at the Aircraft Interiors Expo, and Air Rest is even more impressive in Cathay’s service, as I experienced as a guest of the airline earlier this month.

Full report: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/cathays-collins-air-rest/

03/13/2025

Air Canada disables inflight map on 737s after Israel disappears

Air Canada has disabled the map functionality on its 737 MAX twinjets after passengers observed that Israel had been removed.

03/09/2025

Passengers have a wealth of choices when flying the three hours between Hong Kong and Japan, from full service airlines like Cathay, ANA and JAL, to a variety of low-cost carriers from both countries.

Keen to try out Hong Kong Express, a Cathay sister airline since 2019, their PR team invited your author to fly from Hong Kong to Takamatsu as a guest of the airline, which included a front row seat, a checked bag, U-First airport priority and a few items off the inflight menu.

HK Express’ menu is the primary form of inflight entertainment on board, and it’s excellent.

Local options included a siu mai and curry fish ball combo, the Hong Kong style egg waffle, sweet red bean soup, milk bubble tea, and more.

Full report: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/hong-kong-express-local-flavour/

03/03/2025

As part of its excellent refinement of the outward-facing herringbone in its Aria seat, Cathay Pacific has made a step-change in technology and user interface, changing the way that passengers interact with their seat. Its enormous main IFE touchscreen — one of four separate touch controls in the seat — is the heart of the Aria experience, pointing the way to one possible future for inflight entertainment.

However, there appear to be some early-delivery gremlins for Cathay and its partners to address.

Full report: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/03/cathays-aria-technology/

02/27/2025

In 2010, Cathay Pacific defined a generation of business class seats with JPA Design: the inward-facing herringbone Cirrus seat originally from Sicma, then Zodiac Aerospace, and now Safran Seats. That seat remains a firm favourite for many, and after well-publicised delivery problems with the Boeing 777X, the carrier turns once more to the Boeing 777-300ER to carry the torch with its new product, Aria.

A Collins Aerospace Elements outwards-facing herringbone, Aria is a strong refinement of the Super Diamond family that the then-B/E Aerospace launched a couple of years after Cirrus. And it is beautiful, a real refinement of the category.

On arrival into the cabin — as, full disclosure, a guest of Cathay — the colour, materials and finish feel truly superlative, with almost every surface feeling premium and luxurious.

Full story: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/02/cathay-mini-suite-aria/

02/26/2025

Scheduled to fly in Saga Premium class with Icelandair from Reykjavik to Washington Dulles in December, I decided to arrive early at Keflavik Airport (KEF) to explore the Icelandair Saga Lounge and to get some work done.

Located in the main terminal near the D gates, the lounge can be accessed by passengers flying up front with Icelandair or via certain codeshare partners, as well as by Saga Gold and Silver loyalty members, a variety of credit card holders, and others.

Icelandair’s slogan is “Fly Well” and from the moment I scanned my boarding pass for entry into the lounge, I felt as if I was doing just that. Quite literally.

Full report: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/02/icelandair-saga-lounge-gives-new-meaning-to-fly-well/

02/24/2025

Your author has been comparing a variety of business class menus recently, and among some genuinely appetising innovations is a growing realisation that many airlines are still serving the kind of food that gives rise to clichéd humour about airplane food: protein-vegetable-starch meals that don’t reheat well and aren’t especially exciting in the first place.

You’ve seen them, and probably eaten them: beef or chicken, with some sort of brown gravy, a stick or two of asparagus or perhaps a broccoli floret, maybe some peas and carrots from a commercially frozen mix, and then what’s probably potatoes (mashed, or a slab of some sort of gratinated potato dish). And it’s all reheated in the dish in which it’s served, so the green veg is more brown, the gravy goes sticky around the edges, and the milk or cheese proteins in the potatoes start to split around the outside before the middle is fully reheated.

The business class cabin is probably the only place that most people — and even more so people with the means or lifestyle to be flying in a premium cabin — will encounter this kind of reheated bland cuisine, and it’s almost baffling that it’s still seen so often. It feels as if it’s a kind of lowest common denominator selection, a meal of last resort designed more not to offend than to please, and that’s both unambitious and unwise for airlines.

Full story: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/02/how-airlines-could-move-beyond-protein-veggie-starch-meals/

02/22/2025

As I prepared to return home after a few fun days in Scotland, KLM made me an offer for the return journey that got me thinking for a few minutes. How much is too much to upgrade from economy to business class on a daytime flight across the Atlantic?

The price that worked for me, at least on a whim on a ScotRail train while browsing the seat map, was $596. But would KLM deliver value for the price?

Full report: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/02/klm-787-10/