Air Canada touts advent of lie-flat seats to U.S.

Air Canada will begin touting lieflat business class seats as a regular selling point on its top coastto-coast routes between the U.S. and Canada. The carrier will formally brand that option as “Signature Service” on its coastto-coast lie-flat routes, some of which predated the announcement.

Air Canada’s move is the latest in an airline industry looking to court high-end travellers with posh flat-bed seats, an amenity that until recent years had been reserved mostly for overseas flights.

Now, however, airlines have made lie-flat seats regular offerings on some domestic routes. Many flights between New York and Los Angeles and between New York and San Francisco now have lie-flat options, for example.

In the United States, several airlines — including JeBlue, Delta, American and United — have turned to lie-flat seats in recent years as a selling point on lucrative-but-competitive crosscountry routes. Now, Air Canada will do the same on its coast-tocoast U.S.-Canada routes.

Starting June 1, Air Canada says it will offer lie-flat suites to customers travelling on its widebody aircraft between Newark and Vancouver and on widebody flights connecting Toronto to both Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“We know our premium customers travelling on longer flight itineraries, such as overnight transcontinental flights, place a high value on convenience and comfort when in airports or onboard an aircraft,” Air Canada president Ben Smith said in a statement. “We are the first North American airline designating aircraft with lieflat seats to U.S. originating premium customers travelling select transborder routes on nonstop flights.”