Japanese Startup ZIPAIR Shows Off Its New Boeing 787 Cabin

New Japanese airline ZIPAIR has just revealed its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner cabin, featuring a new business class and economy seats.

Who is ZIPAIR?

ZIPAIR is a new low-cost carrier founded entirely by Japanese full-service carrier Japan Airlines. It will be based out of the hub of Tokyo Narita International Airport and is expected to take off in early 2020 (May 14, 2020, to be exact) just in time for the Tokyo Summer Olympics. 

The carrier will not be focusing on domestic travel within the country, but will instead be looking internationally, with two planned routes so far to Seoul, South Korea, and Bangkok, Thailand. There are also tentative plans to expand to the US West Coast in 2021, but it seems the Japanese owners want to see how the airline performs closer to home first.

To complete these routes, the airline has four Boeing 787-8 aircraft on order, with the first two being pulled from JAL and another two to be delivered early in 2021. They are all being outfitted with new cabins.

What is the ZIPAIR Boeing 787-8 like?

Now this interior needs to be seen to be believed. You can always tell the personality of an airline based on the colors they choose for their interior. Ryanair has blues and yellows, Wizz Air incorporates purple and pink and airBaltic is fond of lime green.

Here is ZIPAIRs:

“Aiming for a “safe and comfortable cabin space even for long flights”, the design is simple, centering on the corporate color gray, but does not impair the quality.“ according to the ZIPAIR press release (translated) “When entering the cabin, the black scene spreads out while the light gray scene spreads out when seated in the seat, making the eyes less tired even for a long time.”

2020年5月就航予定の中長距離LCCのZIPAIR、ボーイング787-8(JA822J)のキャビン公開。ZIP Full-Flat 18席とStandard 272席の2クラス290席仕様。ZIP Full-Flatの座席は本革製で180度リクライニング機能を備え、シートピッチ約107cm(約42inch)、座席幅約51cm(約20inch）、JAMCO製。 pic.twitter.com/K6TI3hxZtD

— 月刊エアライン編集部 (@ikarosairline) December 18, 2019

The cabin is split into two classes, ZIP lie-flat (business) and ZIP Standard (economy) with 290 passengers on board.

Zip lie-flat business class

Business class is arranged in a 1-2-1 herringbone configuration, with each seat able to lie completely flat (a nice bonus for a low-cost carrier, many of which push for recliners in business class). There are 18 seats in the cabin.

Each seat has a seat pitch of 42 inches when in seat mode.

“The seat cover is made of genuine leather and you can enjoy the feeling of relaxing on the living sofa in your home,” (translated from the press release).

The press release also makes special note that three toilets on board in the business class cabin feature “Washlet, with a hot water washing function”. Does this mean that business class passengers are treated to the same smart toilets that are found in urban japan? This remains to be seen.

成田空港でZIPAIRのキャビンが初公開されました。
ワンランク上の「ZIP Full-Flat」は座席が180度倒れるフルフラット仕様です。https://t.co/d6m9dXz3jK pic.twitter.com/TF3JkBqxw5

— FlyTeam (@FlyTeamJp) December 18, 2019

Zip Standard Economy Class

There are 272 economy seats onboard in a nine-seat across the cabin. The “regular seats maintaining the world standard seat pitch” is around 31 – 32 inches of pitch which is pretty brutal for a long-haul international flight.

But check out this tray table design:

As a fellow Simple Flying writer Tom mentioned, there is little use for the laptop powerpoint if you don’t have any tray table in which to hold it.

There is no entertainment as well, with the carrier remarking in the same press release,

“The personal monitor screen is not equipped, and the design is designed so that customers can freely enjoy internet, video, and shopping on their smartphones and tablets”

What do you think of this aircraft cabin design? Let us know in the comments.