Airline CEO: It’s Simple. We Ban Business Class
Taylor Rains November 18, 2019
main shot. A model will be placed in here for an additional shot (TBC) so bear this in mind when setting up your file structure. Overall the cabin should feel bright colourfull and well lit
Wizz Air CEO, Jozsef Varadi, has made a bold statement regarding business class travel on legacy carriers. He claims that business class on airlines such as KLM and British Airways are bad for the environment, stating their business model has a greater environmental impact than Wizz Air’s low-cost model. He stated, “Just look at business costs. Business costs is one of the diverse products you can bring to the market with regard to environmental impact. I mean, a business passenger emits 2x or 3x more than an economy-class passenger. Look at connecting traffic compared to point-to-point. When you connect, you’re going to be taking 2 flights. So your impact on the environment is going to be at least twice as bad compared to a single flight, a point-to-point flight. Inherently, their business model is environmentally polluting. I mean, flying a lot of business class, flying a lot of connecting passengers, they are affecting the environment in a bad way.”
Banning Business Class
He even went as far as to say that business class is unethical and should be banned on airlines. He explained his reasoning in a statement, “Business class should be banned. These passengers account for twice the carbon footprint of an economy passenger, and the industry is guilty of preserving an inefficient and archaic model. A rethink is long overdue, and we call on fellow airlines to commit to a total ban on business class travel for any flight under five hours.”
Wizz Air Environmental Efforts
Although it is unlikely any carrier will take the CEO up on his advice, Wizz Air is making moves to reduce their own carbon footprint. The airline claims they are the most environmentally friendly airline in Europe, undercutting Ryanair’s carbon emissions by 15% and legacy carriers by 60%-70%. Furthermore, about half of their fleet is comprised of the efficient A321neo, allowing the airline to reduce their cost, including fuel burn, by 20% compared to the A320.
With 270 aircraft on order, Wizz Air is not slowing down in its environmental efforts. Varadi boasted, “As we continue to update and upgrade our fleet and with the induction of more and more A321neos, that number will continue to decrease, and we are expecting and targeting out CO2 emission to be down by 30% in 2030.”
Although Varadi has some interesting points, banning business class is not realistic. Frequent business class flyers enjoy the comfort and amenities offered – stripping that away may hurt the airline’s reputation and potential earnings.
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Says the head of WizzAir. The airline that shut down and needed a massive infusion of capital. Yeah, like he really knows what is talking about.....
I will try to be as civil as humanly possible here, but it has to be said: A lot of you who commented above seem to be the type who would be impacted by such a ban, i.e. business/first travellers (I will not say snobs, but for some of those comments I am tempted) who don't want anyone to encroach on your privilege to ride in luxury. First of all, as we all know, with the current business models, not everyone has the spare money to pay for the equivalent of 5-10 economy seats for the better treatment up front. Not to say I wouldn't love to pay up and travel in the better classes if I had the opportunity. The airlines earn quite a LOT MORE on the business/first cabin than the entirety of the economy cabin that occasionally takes up as little as half of the available floor space but packing up to five times the number of pax. It is true that there are marginal weight and consequently fuel savings from having less people in the premium cabins, but on the whole that saving is just that, marginal. We need to remember that the same amount of machinery needs to be propelled to working speeds and altitudes, and then traverse the distance between origin and destination. That will still consume the same baseline bulk of fuel. Further, the airframe needs to be balanced so that the centre of mass is not way too far to the rear of the plane where the "rest of us" gets to travel, so there will need to be more baggage and cargo stowed underneath the J/F pax and the capacity (volume) is still not fully optimised. Mr Varadi makes a good point. The business model needs to be challenged. From an environmental standpoint it should be obvious that not only the cabin factor but also the cabin efficiency needs to be addressed. But it doesn't necessarily mean we have to put everyone in todays "cattle class" style accommodation. On a short haul (up to around 3-4 hours) I and many with me have no problem tolerating it. These are indeed the type of services that Wizz offers. On intra-european flights we have few flights longer than that anyway, so the argument is somewhat sound on those lines. However, on the long-haul, intercontinental (or transcontinental in e.g. US or Russia) this is not a pleasant experience to anyone flying Y. It would be refreshing to see a new type of intercontinental carrier. More along the lines of offering all-econonmy+ services. We could and probably should offer a total redesign of the seating arrangements, maybe in S-shaped seats that are stacked. The cabin efficiency would seat by seat be slightly worse than todays economy, but offer sleepable and comfortable seats for everyone, and the entirety of the cabin can be filled with this type of seats. Offer these seats for 1.5-2 times the price of todays economy and the cabinfactor will be close to unity and the airline could potentially still earn the same or even more per flight than with todays systems. And for the clique who just have to show that they are economically superior to the rest, they can be offered e.g. stratified meal services (or just have them fly legacy carriers). An airline who provides an efficient AND comfortable journey for everyone will be popular. There you have it, a way to "ban business" without encroaching much on comfort AND improve flight transport efficiency.
He should fire his employees, recycle his planes, and operate a freighting company with mule teams.
Stop having children, that is the most effective way to save the planet.
Silly man. I choose never to fly any class with economy in its name. Eliminate business class and I would not fly