Originally Posted by
nicolas75
Yes indeed
If we make the hypothesis that the business class is empty
and that by no longer blocking the middle seat you get 6 or 8 additional seats (3 or 4 rows as generally observed in medium haul flights) out of 150 seats in a Airbus A320
that makes a
4% or 5.33% potential increase of your turnover (when considering that the medium price of the front seats will be the same as the medium price of the whole plane, which is not the case as it may be superior)
which is not bad in these difficult days.
(It is for the same reason that the French Railways would like to eliminate TGV bar spaces and replace them by seats to get additional turnover)
Nicolas, I was just asking for your expert advice, not implying anything else. Similar reports/interviews appeared in numerous media including the Wall Street Journal.
But I still cannot get the "capacity" argument. We all know that to transform the 4 C seats into six Y seats it takes a few seconds (push on the button under the armrest and move the armrest, then move the middle table up). I do it all the time on domestic flight when middle seat is empty. So if there are no C pax, they can easily sit 6 Y pax per front row. I understand that there is a flexibility cost in terms of keeping a couple of C seats in case a C pax shows up at the last minute; but a C pax pays some 4 or 5 times what a typical Y pax pays. Catering can be loaded at the last minute ex-Paris. But maybe the whole thing is too complicated to manage.
As other said, my guess is that AF is willing to sacrifice the revenue of the few remaining Europe-France C pax, as there are currently very few left with 1) the crisis and competition, 2) AF huge European C prices, 3) AF minimalist product. But there is a large number of longhaul transfer J pax, and I assume that AF believes that they will fly AF anyhow and that the removal of European C will simply translate in cost-cutting. This might be where the major saving might comes from. Over the short run that is probably true. Over the medium term when transfer pax realize the downgrade??? With a below-average longhaul biz product and Y connecting flight, the only option for AF will be to compete on price, price, price. It is a business choice and that might be the right decision. Of course, it is a bit surprising given that AF (and France) is a high-cost country.