Originally Posted by eponymous_coward

European airlines fly in countries with much higher per capita incomes, and don't have "proper business class" for flights of similar stage lengths on their narrowbodies. USA airlines do (sort of), but a lot of those seats are filled with free upgrades from cheap coach tickets.

Now, maybe there is a large market where people want to pay twice or three times the cost of a coach seat for a one hour flight where they get free booze and free blast-chilled food that the airline is selling at 5000% markup, plus a somewhat more comfortable seat, simply because of conspicuous consumption, and maybe it's a market that would be wildly popular in Thailand... but I'll just point out that the models for airlines that have exploded in the past 30 years are Southwest, Ryanair and AirAsia. None of those airlines are full service airlines...