Last April, KLM announced that it would play catch up with many of their European Rival carriers and finally introducing a full flat seat in their long haul business class cabins. While working with the Dutch designer Hella Jongerius, KLM is attempting to create an entirely new look and feel of their current business class product, reviving an old sterile business class cabin with a modern stylish cabin. The new Cabin is comfortable and new age, it moves away from the sterile business class feel that plagues KLM now and instead invites customers into a comfortable and warm environment.
The new cabin is truly a step above and Hella Jongerius had her homework cut out for her with this cabin redesign! Seats feature both leather and aluminum accents, and a palette of blue, purple, grey, brown and white which highlight the cabin in a way never done before. Jongerius’ team flew with fabric swatches multiple times to observe how colors were perceived differently in various lighting conditions, and then afterwards made their decisions from what was perceived at 30,000 feet!
The light condition above the clouds and the light temperature makes all colours very red,” Jongerius told Dezeen at the launch. “We had to really work in that sense so that the red goes out of the colour palette and so we chose colours that have a bit of green in them.”
Everything from the seats to the floor were redesigned and Jongerius didn’t leave any details out. The carpet is inspired by the Milky Way and is made from recycled uniforms of flight attendants. Meanwhile the seats, cushions, pillows, and curtains accent each other perfectly! The redesign doesn’t stop there, even the seats are all new for KLM. The new Diamond seats will offer a full 180⁰ recline and will accentuate that at home feeling! In addition, the new seats provide more privacy with partitions between the seats and the aisle. Furthermore, the seat includes personal TV screens, more storage compartments, but still lack direct access from every seat.
If you want to check out this seat for yourself, the first B747-400 is expected to take the sky with this seat in June 2013. The first route has yet to be announced, but its appearing as though the plane will serve Asia first. KLM will introduce the new interior on the B777 next year after the B747 have all been refurbished.
KLM is a Delta partner meaning your SkyMiles are redeemable on all KLM flights! In addition, FlyingBlue is a American Express direct mile transfer mile partner, meaning membership reward points can also be transferred directly to a Flying Blue or Alitalia MileMilage account for redemptions on these newly outfitted planes!
