Business Booms For Recaro, Especially in Asia
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APEX Insight: With six major airline seat order announcements and a new lightweight economy seat on display, Recaro’s business is on an uptick, reflecting, among other things, the continued demand for lightweight economy seats – and the CL3710 seat is taking the most orders.
It’s been a big show for Recaro Aircraft Seating at this year’s Aircraft Interiors Expo. The airline seating manufacturer not only unveiled its lightweight BL3710 short-haul economy seat, but also announced six separate seat order announcements from airlines that include Cebu Pacific Air, Hainan Airlines and Singapore Airlines.
Mark Hiller, CEO of Recaro Aircraft Seating, describes the BL3710 as a “lighter and smarter” seat. While the seat looks incredibly slim, it offers a high level of comfort with the appearance of more living space. “The seat row is pitched at 29 inches, but we could also do 28 inches. We would not recommend it, but it could also be less,” says Hans-Jürgen Reuber, head of Product Management, Recaro.
“We have developed a new backrest that’s made out of a plate of carbon fiber material,” he explains. “It’s not a classical backrest like you see on the other seats with an aluminum frame around it and a plastic part inside; it’s carbon fiber material, which is very flexible and has an ergonomic shape.”
The material not only contributes to the seat’s weight reduction – it’s approximately 9 kilos – but also allows for a highly adaptable backrest. “We have a modular and configurable backrest that allows us to differentiate features,” says Reuber. OEMs and airlines can choose between a high literature pocket, tablet holder and other variations.
Also on display, the PL3530 premium-economy model features a thick cushioned calf rest that can extend and be easily adjusted for short and tall passengers. In the business-class section, a mockup of the CL6710 seat showed off a variety of premium features, including mood lighting and heating and cooling environment controls that could, in theory, be adjusted by the manufacturer’s seat app for passengers. An LED fiber with adjustable colour options is also applied as trimming to the seat.
Read all of Recaro’s announcements:
- Air China placed an order of 2,500 CL3710 economy seats to fit 10 Airbus A350s.
- Alaska Airlines ordered seven shipsets of economy- and business-class seats for its new Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 737 MAX 9 aircraft.
- Singapore Airlines expanded its collaboration with Recaro, with a major order of the CL3710 economy seat.
- TAP Portugal will equip the cabin of its new Airbus long-haul A330-900neo aircraft exclusively with seats from Recaro. The order comprises more than 4,000 economy- and business-class seats.
- Cebu Pacific Air is the first airline in the Asia-Pacific region to order Recaro’s SL3510 seat model for its 30 new A321neo aircraft.
- Hainan Airlines placed a large order of the CL3710 for its Airbus A330 aircraft.
For more, read “Seats That Fly,” published in the March/April issue of APEX Experience magazine, and read our interview with CEO, Mark Hiller.