Will airlines be forced to remove rows and middle seats in the future?
 

Was reading some post on other sites about how airlines should not be allowed to seat people in the middle anymore or have every other row removed. What's the point of social distancing if we all get back on airplanes with middle seats full on 2,4,6,8,10,12 hour flights? If restaurants and bars are expected to cut seating by 50% after this wouldn't transit be the same?

Even with relaxed conditions (removing middle seats and every other row won't even come close to meeting current guidelines), I'm sure the airlines will have to make some concessions with seating density.

who is saying that? I have heard suggestions to temporarily limit patrons in restaurants to one per table (as done in parts of China), but are you talking about permanent restrictions? Removing rows permanently? Seems... unlikely.

I'm not saying people have said that yet on the record but you know it's coming. Are you going to an eatery when this is all over and sitting three feet from another patron on both sides? Will you sit in a middle seat on a 10 hour flight?

For temporary restrictions, it seems like a lot of work to change seating layouts. Permanent restrictions seem very unlikely.
Eventually no one will remember or care about what's going on now until it happens again. Rinse and Repeat. People have short memories. Ask any historian.

There’s another thread where this came up. If you are going to keep pax 6 ft. Apart, you’d need to do much more than leave middle seats empty and take out every other row. On mainline narrow body, in both regular Y and E+, you’d need to remove 2 of every 3 rows, and also only seat people at the windows. In Domestic F, you could presumably do every 2nd row and just make the distance in front and back, but you’d probably only get 1 person per row. For UAX, you’d only get 1 person in every third row. In any case, in any environment where the the demand is much greater than the current, with general LF being ~10-15%, you can’t really do it unless carriers are willing to lose tons of $ on every flight. Right now, not even sure why the majors, with the current loads, aren’t just saying this isn’t worth it, let’s shut the flying down for a few weeks.

It's really simple.

Will airlines be forced to remove rows/middle seats? Doubt it.

And in the event it happens in the distance future, fares would rise. Basic economics.

The premise of this thread is that someone read a post on some other website in which some person said that something might happen. It's just another post with no factual basis whatsoever.

Even if carriers do implement some form of distancing for a short period of time, there is no reason to remove seats in order to do that and then restore those seats when this is over. Moreover, as pointed out, these distancing efforts do not even meet minimum guidelines so are just a sop to make people feel better about flying when the real answer is that they should not fly at all.

By this time next year will all will of had it now with antibodies or have had vaccine shot.

But think airline industry will never be the same.

I know it’s coming? No, I don’t actually know.

I personally don’t go to eateries where I rub shoulders with strangers even in normal times. And I don’t book a 10 hour flight where my seat would be a middle seat unless the person on one side is my wife (and even then it’d better be PE or better).

But what you are speculating might be the new normal sounds like business class separation with crappy economy seats. I don’t think that is going to be the new normal. What are the fares going to look like?

Mmmm RJ200 retrofit with herringbone suites

They aren't, so your question is moot.

I can save you some time, none of these things will be happening.

We know it's coming - this virus will be around forever, the entire future of mankind, there will never be a vaccine, it will never ramp down, and every industry will have to adjust to keep human beings 6+ feet apart forever?

No, I don't think anyone even thinks that's coming.

(EDIT: Actually, I must be wrong, because at least one person thinks it)

The point is that this is not going to last forever. There have been pandemics before and there will be pandemics in the future, but they don't last forever. I don't see why there would be any such permanent measure put in place in planes or in restaurants. All of these things are temporary measures until the virus dies off or a vaccine is developed.