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Most major airlines offer a Premium Economy product, at least on long haul routes. KLM was part of the group that didn’t. However, KLM’s new Premium Comfort product will soon be available on routes from Amsterdam to the US. The first retrofitted Boeing 787 Dreamliner will start flying to New York this week.

KLM’s Premium Comfort Cabin

For many years, KLM has traditionally offered Economy Class and World Business Class on board its long haul aircraft.

In more recent years, the Dutch national airline added Economy Comfort, which is not actually a separate cabin. It’s simply an Economy Class seat with more legroom and slightly more recline. Passengers in Economy Comfort get the same service as other Economy passengers.

Although the Economy Comfort service is not so different from Economy, it’s still a popular seat. It’s popularity may be due to the average height of Dutch people and hence the need for more legroom.

But for KLM apparently that’s no longer enough. According the airline’s ‘extensive market research’ a new travel class is needed to ‘meet the wishes of business passengers as well as leisure travellers’. The new cabin is called Premium Comfort, and it’s basically another name for Premium Economy. Although KLM may be late to the PE party, it could be a smart move to first have a look how competitors are doing and learn what works and what doesn’t.

Premium Comfort is a separate cabin that will be installed on Boeing 787-9/-10 Dreamliner and Boeing 777-200/-300 aircraft. The Collins Aerospace seats will be configured in a 2-3-2 configuration. The seats have a generous 8 inch recline and seat pitch of 38 inch.

Passengers traveling on KLM Premium Comfort also get a higher quality service offering. with upgraded meals and drinks.

(KLM’s miniature Delft Blue houses filled with Dutch Bols gin will remain an exclusive gift to World Business Class passengers only, so Premium Comfort passengers unfortunately miss out on those!)

Have a look at our video below to see all the details of the new KLM Premium Comfort seat.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner

The new travel class will be installed on both Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 777 aircraft. The first aircraft that is fully retrofitted is the Boeing 787-10 with registration PH-BKA. This aircraft will go into service on the route between Amsterdam and New York JFK, starting this week. By the end of November next year, 50 aircraft should be fully operational with the new travel class.

KLM’s Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner will feature 28 Premium Comfort seats, as well as 38 World Business Class seats (unchanged number). KLM will also increase the Economy Comfort capacity with 12 additional seats. 213 standard Economy Class seats remain – a significant decrease of 57 Economy seats. On other aircraft, KLM gives up similar numbers of Economy Class seats in favor of its Premium Economy offer.

Premium Comfort Routes

KLM will gradually introduce the retrofitted aircraft on long haul routes across the globe, starting with trans-Atlantic routes to New York JFK, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. Other destinations will follow later, such as New Delhi, Nairobi, Kilimanjaro, Dar es Salaam and Panama City.

Bottom line

The first flight from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to New York JFK is scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday 31st of August 2022).

InsideFlyer will be reviewing this ‘inaugural’ flight. We will publish our findings in a flight review and YouTube video soon. So check back later if you’re interested in finding out what KLM’s new product is really like.

Are you pleased to see another Premium Economy product?