How Can an Airline Seat Cost $300,000?
Joe Cortez April 06, 2015
Premium aircraft seats require more than materials — design, amenities and installation can cause the price tag to ascend.
Wonder how a premium-class aircraft seat can cost upwards of $300,000? Travelers who love flying in private suites, lie-flat seats and with many in-flight amenities can thank the advances in passenger comfort for the price tag that has kept a set of Boeing 787 Dreamliners grounded in the Mojave Desert. Gizmodo reports as design and technology changes for the in-flight experience, so does the complexity in creating and delivering the premium seats.
The website discovered that the rush to create a better premium-class comes is causing designers to focus on creating a number of innovations that were never before applied to commercial aircraft, including closing doors for suites, fold-down partitions that bring two single lay-flat beds together, and in-suite shower spas at the front of aircraft.
From there, the seats must be constructed with high-end materials that are light, durable, and can last for years. While the seats are being constructed, the problem for airlines lies in installing the high-quality premium seats. Because of the space required and special wiring and duct needs, it is more expensive to retrofit an aircraft instead of installing the correct airplane seats to begin with.
Although the seats can cost more than an average American home, the premium experience comes with a significant return over the life of the seat. According to The New York Times, premium seats allow airlines to absorb extra income through the sales of premium seats on long-haul routes.
[Photo: Etihad Airways]
I think they meant it cost that much to design and manufacture the physical seat.
A "fraction of the cost"? Seriously? JFK-LHR in BA First tonight is $11k. A private jet is $50k, minimum (probably more like $80-90k) for that trip.
Unless you have a lot of passengers on board, the cost of flying privately is almost always substantially more per passenger than flying paid F. For certain people and companies for whom time is money and who need to be productive in flight, flying privately is economical when opportunity cost is factored in.
Not sure why people shell out that kind of cash for public transportation when you can subscribe to a global private jet service for a fraction of the cost.