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Why Bigger Planes Mean Cramped Quarters (popsci.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The ironic thing about the compressed state of air travel today is that planes are getting larger. The jet I was on, an Airbus A321, stretches nearly 23 feet longer than its predecessor, the A320. More space, more passengers, more profit. These bigger planes are increasingly the most common Âvariants -- both on American Airlines and across all carriers. The current Boeing 737s, the world's most flown craft, are all longer than the original by up to 45 feet. And yet, on the inside, we're getting squeezed.
That's because more space doesn't equal more space in Airline World. It equals more seats -- and typically less room per person. In 2017, for example, word leaked that American was planning to add six economy spots to its A320s, nine to its A321s, and 12 (that's two rows) to its Boeing 737-800s. JetBlue is reportedly ramming 12 extras into its A320s, and Delta's will gain 10. And, come 2020, you'll likely find more seats on every United plane. In Airline World, they call this densification, which is a silly word. Passengers call it arrrgh!
Consumer Reports recently polled 55,000 of its members about air travel. There were complaints about all aspects, from ticketing to agents checking carry-ons at the gate. But 30 percent of coach-class fliers rated their seats as outright uncomfortable, and every airline received extremely low scores on legroom and cushiness in economy. Clearly, things are dismal and seem to be getting even worse. They're so bad, in fact, that last year, nonprofit consumer-advocacy group FlyersRights.org filed a suit against the Federal Aviation Administration, after lobbying the agency to stop the squeeze and standardize seat sizes.
That's because more space doesn't equal more space in Airline World. It equals more seats -- and typically less room per person. In 2017, for example, word leaked that American was planning to add six economy spots to its A320s, nine to its A321s, and 12 (that's two rows) to its Boeing 737-800s. JetBlue is reportedly ramming 12 extras into its A320s, and Delta's will gain 10. And, come 2020, you'll likely find more seats on every United plane. In Airline World, they call this densification, which is a silly word. Passengers call it arrrgh!
Consumer Reports recently polled 55,000 of its members about air travel. There were complaints about all aspects, from ticketing to agents checking carry-ons at the gate. But 30 percent of coach-class fliers rated their seats as outright uncomfortable, and every airline received extremely low scores on legroom and cushiness in economy. Clearly, things are dismal and seem to be getting even worse. They're so bad, in fact, that last year, nonprofit consumer-advocacy group FlyersRights.org filed a suit against the Federal Aviation Administration, after lobbying the agency to stop the squeeze and standardize seat sizes.
It's not that simple. Even WestJet says that they are only more efficient on short-hauls, less than 300 miles. They are louder, they generally don't fit in normal gates and require buses / walking to the plane, they have very little overhead room... They introduce a new type of plane to be handled by ground crews in many small airports with small crews.
There are real disadvantages, along with advantages. If they made sense for an airline, the "sacred of prop plane" wouldn't be an issue, just like it's not an issue for Porter.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
Dash-8s work fine with jetways -- they need an adapter gangway that mates to the lower door height. But the same applies to small jet aircraft like the ERJ, CRJ, and BAE146. The reason jetways aren't used for many short-haul flights isn't due to aircraft type, but because smaller airports and regional terminals weren't set up for them.
https://www.eiaviation.com/wp-...
This is why capitalism rarely serves the needs of the consumer, because usually all players in the market have a a common goal that is the exact opposite of what the consumer needs.
There are two competing consumer needs here, but you're ignoring the one that is the most important for many consumers: cost. X% fewer seats on a plane, all else equal, means X% higher ticket price. And when consumers are shopping for airline tickets, they're mostly shopping on price.
What consumers need that capitalism doesn't always provide is accurate information. As long as consumers can get accurate information about legroom when choosing their flights, then if they want to choose cheaper flights with less legroom, that's their decision and any regulations that try to force them to have more room just serve to price air travel out of reach for more people.
And frankly, it's not clear to me that most travelers actually care that much, based on the fact that although legroom information is available from the airlines, only one of the major flight search tools provides it. I just checked Kayak, Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline and Google Flights. Google is the only one that provides legroom information, and even there you have to click the "expand" arrow on each fare option to see what the legroom is. Further, while Google allows you to specify a lot of different criteria to narrow your search options, legroom isn't one of them.
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