Originally Posted by
dulciusexasperis
As long as the consumer keeps insisting on cheap fares, issues related to that will exist. Fares today are 50% cheaper than they were 30 years ago, in real money (that is, corrected for inflation). Less space per passenger is just one fallout from that. The people get what the people deserve is very true in terms of air travel today.
This article sees lower fares as a good thing, I disagree.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business...oticed/273506/
Only recently, questions have finally started to be raised about the effects of reduced space per passenger and the possible ramifications.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...more-miserable
What surprises me is that we constantly see references to airlines trying to reduce costs and increase profits as the reason for this. I've yet to see anyone writing about 'connecting the dots' on how the consumer's pushing for lower airfares is the ultimate reason for this.
Can anyone remember economy class when it had the kind of space shown in the following 1970s photo? Can anyone remember when the density of passengers was also often as shown in the photo?
http://www.aviationexplorer.com/vint...20interior.jpg
Also note the size of the overhead bins and the resulting feeling of openness in the cabin. I can remember when overhead bins were for hats, coats and briefcases, that's all. There were no cases of 'air rage' caused by people fighting over overhead bins, reclining seats and yes, obese passengers. They just go their own set of seats with no one beside them.
I do not completely agree on this.
In the 1970/80s I flew many times long haul (Y only), but today it is not more crammed. Admittedly, the latest years I flew mostly EK and their Y is like W (premium Y) of some others, but SQ and KL are also good in legroom, and I am rather tall (almost 2m height).
But I don't know the situation on short haul as it is long ago I took a short haul.
Competition is tight, so airlines tend to cram seats, but other things are that the seats of the 1970 were thicker than in modern aircraft.
On the other hand, wired IFE with on-seat screens is becoming more and more obsolete, most people now have smartphones, tablets and / or laptops to display IFE, so why can airlines just get rid of screens on the Y seats ? That few people without device needing IFE can rent a tablet for a small fee.
That saves a lot of weight: assume 300 Y seats in an average long haul plane such as a 777 / A350 / A380, slightly less on a 787 or A330, every screen is 1 kg extra plus all cabling from the servers, which can be replaced by a few (extra) wifi hotspots to stream the IFE from the onboard servers to the passenger's devices. Even adding 100 rental tablets of 0.5kg each will save 300kg - 50kg = 250kg plus the cables.