Originally Posted by
bluedemon211
With the drastic reduction in capacity (in many cases only 1 non-stop between cities where there used to be as many as 5-6) the odds are those seats will be needed.
No, odds are
very strong the seats won't be needed. AFA reports average flight load is 15 passengers per flight.
Originally Posted by
jsloan
It's nothing but theater. The airlines cannot stay in business allocating 28 square feet* of airplane to every passenger.
The federal government is subsidizing them to keep flying. They don't need to be profitable right now, they need to keep flying so essential travel can continue. If they can do that more safely, then great.
Originally Posted by
jsloan
Even a blocked middle seat is only about 20" of space from the nearest passenger. To meet CDC guidelines, UA would need to block nearly 90% of their narrowbody inventory -- basically, you could put two people every three rows, although you might need to stagger them on the 76-seaters.
These things fall off exponentially -- 6' is a great rule but 3' is better than 0'. (CDC says 6', a lot of EU countries say 1.5m, and WHO says 1m....6' isn't a magical boundary.)
Blocking middle seats on a low-LF flight is not that big of a deal because people wouldn't select middle seats anyway. I guess it opens up E+ to non-elites sooner if E- starts to fill up.