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It has been tried in the past. Anyone here remember the days when KL and Swissair used to have a fixed C class configuration with proper "armchair" seats on inter-European flights configured 2-2 ? Or when Transavia used to fly LGW-AMS with the old BA Super Club (long-haul business class) configured 2-2 with seat cushions which were 24 inches wide ?

But the big problem for the network carriers is that they serve many different markets which huge variations in passenger types and numbers depending on the route, the time of day and the day of the week.

So it meant that with a fixed configuration KL and Swissair had insufficient seats to meet demand on some flights. Or else they had too many empty C seats so they needed to upgrade pax from Y.

The present policy of convertible seating isn't perfect for the passenger but it suits the carriers' peaks and troughs.

Now with today's trend towards budget carriers, no body knows whether there is even a future for C class within Europe. For example, carriers like SK (which 10 yrs ago carried huge volumes of C class passengers) has seen a dramatic fall off in C pax as companies cut back their travel budgets and demanded that staff fly Y class.