Lie-flat seats coming to Hawaiian Airlines

Harriet Baskas | Special for USA TODAY

HONOLULU -- It will soon be easier to sleep, chill out and chat with your travel partner on many Hawaiian Airlines flights.

The airline announced Monday it is redesigning its premium cabins, adding 180-degree lie-flat seats to its business-class sections of the A330 aircraft. Hawaiian currently uses its A330s on the majority of its North American and international routes from Hawaii.

Created in partnership with Seattle-based design consultancy PaulWylde and Italian firm Optimares, Hawaiian Airlines’ new business class have ottomans and will fold out to form 76-inch beds.

Beyond the leather seats, the premium cabin will get a Hawaiian makeover with mood-lighting, brightly-colored accent panels and curved surfaces designed to evoke the winds and the ocean.

“We believe this will usher in a new era of premium service in Hawaii,” Hawaiian Airlines President and CEO Mark Dunkerley said during a media day at the airline’s Honolulu headquarters. He added that the new service will also “take our signature in-flight hospitality to an entirely new level.”

Instead of offering very private individual spaces, the new cabin design and the 2-2-2 seat configuration reflects the fact that Hawaiian Airlines is “primarily a leisure-based carrier catering to couples and families traveling to the vacation of a lifetime,” said Dunkerley.

“This is not just anybody’s life-flat seat,” he said, “It’s the product of months of research and the painstaking attention to the details of our island homes and also to what our guests really want.”

The first A330 to be equipped with the new seats is scheduled to enter Hawaiian’s long-haul service in the second quarter of 2016. Installation of the seats on the carrier’s remaining 22 A330s is scheduled to begin in September 2016 and continue through 2017.

The airline isn’t saying – just yet – how much they’ve spent on the new lie-flat seats, nor which routes will get the first planes equipped with the seats.

“I think there will a tendency to have them on our international routes first,” said Dunkerley, “but in a few months it will go from being the exceptional experience to the expected experience.”

Hawaiian Airline’s cabin redesign isn’t limited to the business section of the A330-200s.

While the front cabin will retain 18 seats, the number of seats in the premium economy section -- which Hawaiian calls “extra comfort” -- will increase from 40 to 68. These seats qualify the passenger for priority boarding and come more legroom (36-inch pitch), complimentary on-demand in-seat entertainment and a power outlet.

“In extra comfort, the physical seats are not changing,” said Dunkerley, “We’ll just have more of them.”

In the main cabin, the number of seats will be reduced to 192 from 236 and the 31-inch pitch will remain the same.

Overall, the airline’s Airbus 330-200 aircraft will now seat 278 passengers, down from 294.

Hawaiian Airlines serves 10 international destinations, including cities in China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti, as well as 11 North American destinations.

The carrier’s flight from Honolulu to JFK International Airport in New York is the longest domestic flight in the United States. The airline is also the only domestic carrier still offering complimentary meals to coach passengers.

Harriet Baskas is a Seattle-based airports and aviation writer and USA TODAY Travel's "At the Airport" columnist. She occasionally contributes to Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog. Follow her at twitter.com/hbaskas.