>Mr. O’Neill says that because the seats are stacked, airlines will not forfeit capacity. The same number of seats in today’s wide-body cabins can be accommodated using Zephyr, so it should not impact an airline’s bottom line. Mr. O’Neill explained, “The best part of this seat: it has NO heavy mechanical/electronic components. The entire seat has only 2 moving pieces inside, so the weight and direct maintenance costs for the airline are significantly reduced! Using advanced composite materials, we can build this seat at less than 50kg per unit.”
This doesn't really answer the question though, right? The real question is if airlines would be willing to invest in the R&D to have stacked seating at all. Personally I'd be fine with it, but I can see a lot of people having problems with it - to say nothing of how expensive it would be to redesign the cabin.
I see airlines buying this, but not to redesign their economy cabin layout, but instead to increase the capacity of their premium cabin.
This would never be used in an economy cabin. The whole point of economy is that at times is so uncomfortable that you have moments where you consider upgrading. If they change this to improve economy, people wouldn’t have a reason for upgrading to an upper cabin.
By this logic, why would airlines even have economy class? Why not just fill whole plane with first clas seats?
The answer of course is that there isn’t enough demand for first class seats, so airlines just fill the remaining space with cheaper, lower margin product. Exactly the same will apply here: if they try to upgrade the whole cabin to this scheme, and try to charge premium prices, other airlines with lower prices cannibalize their customer base. Solve for equilibrium.
Have in mind that I’m not talking about first class. Most airlines nowadays have a medium class with a little bit more leg room and maybe like a complimentary alcoholic drink.
Every time I fly, that class is full.
If this layout gives you an efficient way to increase the capacity of that class without sacrificing the economy capacity that would totally make sense for the airlines, even if they don’t sell that class fully in each flight.
I don’t know if it’s technically feasible since I know airplanes have some weight limitations, but in theory this would be a way to have more seats for a class that is expensive but not prohibitive to the economy passenger.
That class is always full because they bid the price lower and lower offering upgrades to existing passengers and then, if all else fails, they will upgrade status fliers to it for free.
Might be even a bit more cynical they’ll push it as a premium economy option and shrink the economy class even further.
I might have a strong case of selection bias but on nearly every 3-4 class config flight I’ve been on in the past 5 years had business me premium economy classes fully seated whilst economy was 60-80% full.
Business travel is now economy premium by default and nearly everyone else upgrades at the airport.
It seems that charging people $400 during booking then $100 at the checkin twice for upgrades is psychologically easier than charging them $600 when booking.
That’s probably because there are usually more people eligible for free upgrades than there are premium seats. That’s the main reason business is full rather than an excess of people actually paying for it or paid upgrades. It’s certainly not the default for business travel.
These seats appear to replace overhead storage. Say goodbye to your free carryon... a plane full of upcharges can outstrip the handful of people who can afford upgrades.
Of course, if you're 7' tall, I'm betting you can't fit at all. If you're north of 300lb, or 70yo, or have physical disabilities, you might not be able to clamber into the upper seats. I don't think that will impede the airlines though.
If you’re 7’ tall, you can’t really fit into existing economy seats, either, because your knees would need to transect the seat in front of you. At least in this configuration, you can slouch.
There's storage area next to each seat, and this is meant for premium economy and not the whole plane. I doubt oversized or disabled people will be choosing these.
Cannibalizing sales of more-premium seats is something to consider, but another consideration is how they compete against other airlines.
If passengers were to show a strong preference for these seats over traditional premium economy, they might switch airlines. But of course it remains to be seen whether passengers would these better, like them less, or have no strong preference.
>Will Airlines Buy It?
>Mr. O’Neill says that because the seats are stacked, airlines will not forfeit capacity. The same number of seats in today’s wide-body cabins can be accommodated using Zephyr, so it should not impact an airline’s bottom line. Mr. O’Neill explained, “The best part of this seat: it has NO heavy mechanical/electronic components. The entire seat has only 2 moving pieces inside, so the weight and direct maintenance costs for the airline are significantly reduced! Using advanced composite materials, we can build this seat at less than 50kg per unit.”
This doesn't really answer the question though, right? The real question is if airlines would be willing to invest in the R&D to have stacked seating at all. Personally I'd be fine with it, but I can see a lot of people having problems with it - to say nothing of how expensive it would be to redesign the cabin.