Originally Posted by
FlyerJ
6. I sincerely question the safety of Rouge. When a portion of your passengers can't even sit straight, when they are wedged into seats with impossibly small legroom, I truly question the ability to evacuate an aircraft quickly and effectively. Sure, Rouge's seating is entirely legal and meets required safety standards. But which A319 do you think is safer? One with 120 seats, where seats are configured such that passengers can get in and out of their rows with relative ease? Or one with an additional 22 people crammed on board (but has the same number of doors)? That concerns me.
An A319 would be safest if it were flying empty. Is that what should be done?
There are numerous carriers which put more than Rouge's 142 pax in. With most flights operating with PR at 136 seats and the reconfig taking them to a hard cap of 136, the following are some airlines which will need to evacuate out
more people through the same number of A319 doors (not counting double-overwing exit models which seat 150 in the same floor space):
Aer Lingus (144)
Air France (142)
Alitalia (138)
Bangkok Airways (144)
Brussles Airlines (141)
Frontier (138)
Germanwings (138-144)
LAN (138-144)
Spirit (145)
TAM (144)
Tiger (144)
Volaris (144)
Vueling (144)
If you want to rally against unsafe evacuation designs, I suggest you start with the CRJ and CRA. I am very nervous seated near the back knowing there is only one direction I can escape from, and if there is a fire between me and all exits onboard (over wings/forward) I'm literally toast. I can't believe it was certified.