Originally Posted by
dulciusexasperis
Now you have about 5 or 6 choices depending on the airline. Those choices exist to meet the need of different segments of the overall market. What's so hard to understand about that?
My theory (which is mine, and has my name on it) is it is because of the higher price level of airfares.
People understand this concept easily for lower-priced items. Wine is a good example. You can buy a bottle for $8 (with a screw-top lid) or pay more--many hundreds of dollars more, if you like--for a better product. When the entry-level product is a couple hundred dollars, many see it differently.
On my airline, it is usually the extra legroom seats which are booked last and/or are the seats which remain empty on a nearly full flight. Those passengers in regular economy are choosing not to spend more for the available seats with more room.
Originally Posted by
Rebelyell
18 inches seems a reasonable minimum as to width.
Perhaps for new airplanes but that would make most of today's narrowbody airplanes financially unviable.
The B737, the most prolific jet airliner in the world, has seats with a width of 17.3". If you were to bring those up to 18" you'd lose 4.2" which would either make the aisle so narrow everyone would have to go down it sideways or you'd have to remove 1/6th of the seats on the airplane.