Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Across the Board: Air Canada’s Signature Class Service Guarantees Lie-Flat Seats

Share

Air Canada's Signature Class cabin on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Image via Air Canada

APEX Insight: Canada’s flag carrier is making sure passengers get a good night’s sleep – and know that they can count on it, too.

Some countries are so big that it can take longer to fly within them than to another continent. Canada is one of them. Business travelers departing from Montreal, in the east of the country, could reach Iceland or Colombia in around the same time it takes to touch down in Vancouver on the Pacific coast. That’s one of the reasons Air Canada began offering lie-flat seats on some of its busiest domestic and transcontinental routes in June.

“The fact that someone can go to Vancouver, do their business in a day, and have the guarantee that they will be able to sleep on a lie-flat seat going home is of tremendous value,” says Andrew Yiu, vice-president of Product at Air Canada. “Nobody else offers the same level of service between Canada and the United States. Nobody else can guarantee and dedicate lie-flat seats on these routes, especially on red-eye flights.”

After conducting trials of the Signature Class service over the past few months, Yiu says Air Canada has been receiving “overwhelmingly positive” feedback. “We get a lot of customers on these flights connecting to international destinations, so some of them are saying, ‘It’s about time that I’m getting a consistent experience from A to Z.’ It makes it easier for us to market because passengers are getting lie-flat seats across the entire journey.”

“Nobody else offers the same level of service between Canada and the United States.” – Andrew Yiu, Air Canada

Although Air Canada was already offering lie-flat seats on domestic and US flights, Yiu says, “You’d never know what aircraft you’d be getting until you showed up at the gate.” Now the airline can confirm with travelers, at the booking phase, that they’ll be getting the same level of experience from check-in to the lounge and on board. “We put a lot of thought into consistency,” he adds.

But because the market has converged in terms of cabin products, Yiu says, Air Canada still had to ask itself: “What can we do to separate ourselves from our competitors?” One of the answers arrived at was improved food and beverage. “Despite all the other distractions on board, people, especially in the premium cabins, want to know what we are going to feed them and what kind of wines we have on board,” he says. “I don’t want to give anyone who has the choice a reason not to connect through Canada.”


“Across the Board” was originally published in the 8.4 September/October issue of 
APEX Experience magazine.