JAL SKY SUITE won the "Best Business Class Airline Seat" at SKYTRAX’s 2013 World Airline Awards

JAL SKY SUITE won SKYTRAX's Best Business Class Airline Seat award. Image by Japan Airlines.

SKYTRAX announced the list of 2013 World Airline Awards winners at the Paris Air Show 2013 today. And unsurprisingly Japan Airlines' (JAL) new Business Class seat dubbed JAL SKY SUITE was named the "Best Business Class Airline Seat". This is the first time a Japanese carrier has won this award.

The SKYTRAX awards are based on a feedbacks from travelers from over 160 countries and covers over 200 airlines. Two of the things they like most about the SKY SUITE is the bed width in the fully reclined position and the privacy.

Privacy standard of JAL SKY SUITE. Image by Japan Airlines.

JAL SKY SUITE seat width in the fully-reclined bed position. Image by Japan Airlines.

Having tried the JAL SKY SUITE myself, I completely agree with this. In fact, those are also two of the reasons I put in when I filled out the survey :) As you can see in the above pictures, it was quite spacious even in the middle seat!

The new JAL SKY SUITE is currently being rolled out to JAL 777-300ER fleet as part of JAL New Sky Project to renew its onboard experience. JAL aim to provide customers an unique and completely refreshing onboard experience by providing something one class above the current standard. In fact, the JAL SKY SUITE was designed based on the Super First Class seat manufactured by B/E Aerospace. That's why you could get the First Class privacy and comfort with this seat. With an innovative 2-3-2 staggered layout, JAL is able to provide unobstructed direct aisle access to every passenger too! This is really something unique and one class above what competitors currently offer in the market. Looks like this really pays off. Congratulations!

Previous award winners are Oman Air in 2011 and 2012 and Singapore Airlines in 2009 and 2010. Both of these seats are wider than JAL SKY SUITE. But what they lack is privacy. Seat and bed width isn't the only thing people look for apparently :)

But then it would be nice if the Premium Economy and Economy Class seats JAL SKY PREMIUM and JAL SKY WIDER could get some recognition too. I wonder who won the awards as SKYTRAX hasn't updated the website yet. Would be interesting to see how this affects JAL's overall ranking as well. But to be honest, I have reservation about the SKYTRAX system due to various reasons and I still do after JAL receiving this award. But I guess giving JAL the award in some ways make SKYTRAX more credible (at least to me) too LOL

You can view the original press release on JAL website (Japanese, English)