EasyJet Announces Plans to Cram Additional Seats Onboard Fleet of A320
Joe Cortez May 14, 2015
A new plan from easyJet calls for one additional row of seats — six seats total — on its fleet of Airbus A320.
British low-cost carrier easyJet is getting ready to put the squeeze its customers once again, but this time, they’ll feel the pressure in the cabin rather than in their wallets. The Telegraph reports easyJet is rolling out a plan that will add six additional seats to its fleet of Airbus 320.
Under the plan, new A320 on order will see one row of seats added to the cabin, increasing the aircraft’s total capacity to 186. In addition, the carrier plans to retrofit all A320 currently in its fleet with the extra row of seats by 2018. Depending on how the aircraft are fitted, experts believe flyers could be reduced to 28 inches of seat pitch. In comparison, the seat pitch on American low-cost carriers range from 28 inches on Spirit Airlines to 31 inches on Allegiant Airlines and Frontier Airlines.
The increase in seats comes as more European low-cost carriers opt to fly more passengers on the same aircraft. Spanish carrier Vueling will soon start flying a 186-seat A320, while Wizz Air announced they will add an additional ten seats to their A321 aircraft. At Ryanair, the Irish low-cost carrier ordered 100 of the new Boeing 737 MAX 200, on the condition that the aircraft can accommodate 200 flyers – 11 more than the original blueprint called for.
Both Airbus and Boeing are working to accommodate the carrier’s demands. In addition to tighter seat pitch, the aircraft will also feature smaller galleys and lavatories throughout the main cabin.
The first of the new A320 with 186 seats is scheduled for delivery in May 2016.
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They will soon have people standing on flights. Mark my words.
Hang on a second... I'm no fan of low cost carriers but this is a very misleading article. What EasyJet is doing is simply taking advantage of a new product offered by Airbus. The article suggests that seat pitch is to be reduced in order to 'cram' in another row of seats. This however, is not the case - rather, the rear galley is being reconfigured. This might be a problem if you were expecting a cooked meal on your next EasyJet flight but this is a very unlikely scenario! A better use of space at the rear allows one more row of seats without any loss of seat pitch. Simples! As many readers will no doubt already know this new Airbus product is being heavily promoted by the company and it's likely that many other airlines will be purchasing new aircraft with this feature or even having their current fleets retrofitted.
It's shockingly bad already. I can't get my knees in ! Just wrong.
Not all that different from Swiss or Lufthansa in that matter. This thread claims that the certification limit for the A320 is 180 seats however: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/swiss-international-air-lines/1618438-swiss-new-configurations-a320-180-seats-a321-220-seats.html So I wonder how EasyJet overcomes that obstacle?