Many aircraft that fly long international services feature a crew rest area. These are often located above the passenger cabin and provide a place for flight attendants and pilots to lie down and have a sleep during their breaks.
While researching an article on the unique Qantas Boeing 767 premium cabin configuration, I came across something a little unusual. It struck me as worth looking into a little deeper.
Qantas 767 Crew Rest Area
Looking at the Qantas Boeing 767-338ER seating plan from 1999 shows everything appearing to be quite normal. However, closer inspection reveals there’s something going on in the first row of economy class.
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- Do you see what I see?
It looks like one of the seats is enclosed in a box in row 23. For some strange reason, it also looks to be much larger and to take up quite a bit more floor space than the other economy class seats. At first, I thought it might be a small office for the Purser, but then I came across a picture.
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- Here it is!
Turns out it is a crew rest area, and an enclosed one at that. Inside is a single business class seat and as there is only one on the whole aircraft, my guess this is for the pilots. Standard economy class seats in row 31 and 32 are blocked off for crew, so that would be for the flight attendants.
Overall Thoughts
Nowadays, you will still find a pilot in a first class or business class seat having a rest from time to time. Of course, today the seats are all lie flat and relatively enclosed.
Back in the 1990s and 2000s when Qantas had this walled in seat, business class and first class seats would usually have two seats next to each other. Passengers can be fairly disruptive to someone needing to sleep, so that wouldn’t do and hence this was the solution.
What do you think of this Qantas crew rest area? Do you know of any other airlines that might have done something similar? If so, I’d love to hear about it. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Seth Jaworski via World of Aviation.
Crew rest image by Chris Finney of Contrabandt Photos on Airliners.net.
As a rest area it was hopeless. Firstly you heard the obligatory crying baby. Then everyone who walked past would drag something along the wall. And the final was that some people would spend substantial time trying to get in…whether they though it was a toilet, or just an upgrade on the quiet, I don’t know.
It’s great to hear some first hand experience of this! Yes, I can see how all of that would not be conducive to rest. I imagine the actual crew rest away from passenger areas is far, far better. Thanks for taking the time to comment – appreciate that!
I believe the last 4 767s (PW 4000) delivered to AC had this same arrangement and were used on YYZ TLV as it was the longest 767 route and had to carry an extra pilot.
Oh, good to know – I’ll check it out! Thanks for that!