Passengers on Air New Zealand’s ultra-long-haul flights will be sleeping in on-board bunk beds for the first time this November.
The company’s SkyNest – a first-of-its-kind cluster of six reclining “sleep pods” installed between coach and premium economy cabins – will go on sale on May 18 as an add-on to passengers’ existing ticket prices. Prices start at $495 for a four-hour session, but this is a current per-flight limit.
The bed will debut in early November on one of the company’s longest routes, New York JFK to Oakland (which can take up to 18 hours in some directions).
At an April 14 press conference in New York, the airline’s CEO Nikhil Ravishankar said the sleeping pods will first be installed on the airline’s two newest Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and will eventually be phased in on the airline’s other long-haul routes. Ravishankar said one of the factors affecting the pace of deployment is the rise in fuel costs, pointing out that fuel consumption is high on these routes.
The long-awaited addition to the airline’s fleet has experienced several delays (originally scheduled to enter service in September 2024). But with Skynest’s impending launch, Air New Zealand is offering two lie-flat options for economy class passengers. (Another, SkyCouch, was launched in 2011 with footrests that turn certain rows of seats into sofa-like spaces.)
How Air New Zealand’s Skynest works
Similar to the bunk beds used by flight attendants on long-haul flights (and those found in pod hotels), each SkyNest has six beds, stacked vertically, three on each side of a designated area, with a ladder in the middle for easy access to the bunk beds above. The pods are designed to allow passengers to lie down completely and ideally take a nap for part of the flight.
Each pod comes with pillows, sheets and blankets, all of which are changed between passengers, and has curtains for privacy. Also included are earplugs, a separate reading light, and a personal USB outlet.
Each Skynest bed can be booked for a four-hour session, and passengers are limited to one session per flight. Reservations are available for both economy and premium economy passengers (but not business class passengers).
In the plausible scenario that the passenger is still fast asleep as time passes, the mood lighting system is programmed to turn on at the end of the session. If that doesn’t work, flight attendants will tap passengers on their ankles to wake them up so they can prepare a bed for the next passenger, an airline representative said.
Sleep-centered strategy on long-haul routes
Air New Zealand has long factored sleep into its decision-making and has devised creative solutions to help passengers feel calm and peaceful on their ultra-long-haul flights (up to 18 hours from the US).
The Auckland-based flag carrier first offered the SkyCouch (three side-by-side economy seats with footrests that pull up to become a “sofa”) in 2011, changing the face of travel for families with young children, couples and solo travelers willing to pay for a little more space.
The Skynest prototype was first unveiled in 2020, around the time the new Oakland-New York direct flight was scheduled to debut. Both faced pushback due to border closures during the pandemic. Direct flights to New York (approximately 18 hours each way) were launched in late 2024, but the newest Dreamliner with Skynest has been pushed back to 2026.
This article was originally published in 2022. The latest information was updated on April 16, 2026, with new information added. Barbara Peterson, Bailey Berg and Jessie Beck contributed reporting.