Jet Airways, earlier this week took delivery the first of its 4 new Airbus 330-300s (VT-JWR) which are on order, and are scheduled to join the fleet over the coming months. Coming up next later this month is VT-JWS. The first two planes will replace Airbus 330-200s which are being returned to their lessors, and the next two will add to the capacity of Jet Airways on the international network, perhaps on their new routes out of Bangalore, or wherever else.

The new A333s are a step-up on the A332s on capacity, and will contain 259 Y seats, and 34 J seats, as compared to 190 Y seats on the earlier A332s, and 30 J seats in the herringbone configuration. The new aircrafts will be doing their first rounds on BOM-BRU-BOM as 9W 228/227 from 22 December 2012 onwards.

A by-product of the new aircrafts is that the herringbone design is now going away from these planes. The Herringbone design provided aisle access and private enclosed spaces to all the individual J seats, however, they were the patent of Virgin Atlantic Airways, who eventually sued Jet Airways in the UK to disallow them from carrying them on future planes.

Which means the new configuration of the business section looks like this (in a 4-5-4-5… configuration), which is similar to the new Lufthansa Swiss business class.

This is how the configuration would look like, you can see the 2 seats in the front and 1 seat in the back. These seats are arranged such that the foot wells for each are under the console of the seat in front, resulting in staggering space between each row of seats.

From the press release…

The Première (business class) in the all new Airbus A330-300 comes with a horizontal flat bed for maximum comfort and more personal space for guests. The configuration of the Première (business class) cabin allows guests to choose between 2 individual seats, adjacent to each other. The all new Vantage 2 suite controls incorporated into the new Airbus A330-300 are equipped with Passenger Control Units (PCU) to activate various features and help the guests adjust to the most comfortable seating position. Pumped air lumbar support, with a massage feature further adds to the comfort of passengers. The newly designed Premiere seats boast individual stowage for guests, a cocktail table area on the side console, leather armrests, a robust table with simple deployment and individual in-flight entertainment through a 12.1” monitor.

…

A unique eXport socket located immediately below the video screen is for guests to plug-in their personal Apple devices such as iPods, iPads and iPhones allowing them to view their personal video content on the video screen and/or listen to music, while allowing for the device to be charged. For our specially abled guests, the dropping side arm in the seats adjacent to the aisle, assists guests to get in and out of their seats with absolute ease and comfort.

Since I am based at Mumbai, I will be one of the first to be affected with these changes as and when I pack my bags to Europe the next time. Which also means, I have to say bye bye to these ones, which are my favourite business class seats on an ongoing basis!

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