Japan’s airliner sells Boeing 747 seats for home use
Tokyo: Looking for that perfect gift for the aviation fan who has everything? One Japanese airline has the answer: a seat from a retired jumbo jet.
If you know someone who just can't get enough of sitting on an airplane, and you've got a spare $5,000, All Nippon Airways will sell you what it calls a "premium" seat from a decommissioned Boeing 747. "Unlike the economy seats, these seats are wide and comfortable, and let users really relax," said Chiho Matsukawa, spokeswoman for ANA Trading, a unit under the airline group.
The company has removed all electrics -- including those attached to the button used to call the cabin crew -- and remodelled the legs so the seat can be used at home without being bolted down. Singletons can have their own individual space for 647,000 yen ($5,450), while couples can recreate those first cramped hours of their honeymoon with a double seat for 747,000 yen.
The Boeing 747 series entered commercial service in 1970 and became one of the most loved work-horses of the time. The 747-400D, which was used on Japanese domestic routes with up to 569 seats, served as "an icon of the era of mass transportation", ANA said.
But the airline retired the last of the fleet in March this year, with a final flight from southern Okinawa to Tokyo. The seats will go on sale online from Christmas Day until February and will be delivered in March. In 2009, ANA sold six first-class and business-class seats from Boeing-747s that had run international routes, fetching up to 504,000 yen for each.
( Source : AFP )
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