17 Mar 2010

Air NZ in no hurry to licence skycouch

7:15 am on 17 March 2010

The chief executive of Air New Zealand says the airline could make tens of millions of dollars by licensing its skycouch to other international airlines, but he's keen to make them wait.

The airline's new lie-flat seats in economy class will be available in its fleet of new planes from November.

Since the skycouch launch last month, chief executive Rob Fyfe says he has been approached by four major airlines in the US and a couple from Europe who are interested in installing them in their aircraft.

Mr Fyfe says licensing revenue could be worth tens of millions of dollars, but says he'd like to keep the seats as a unique drawcard for Air New Zealand for as long as possible.