Airlines: state of siege in the cabins

The anecdote would certainly make you smile. At the beginning of July, the American news agency Bloomberg published a very serious article about the reduction in the number of the surface area of... toilets. In reference, Delta Air Lines which was the first, back in 2014, to use a narrower model on its domestic and regional routes. The airline has since been followed by United Airlines, American Airlines and Jet Blue. The aim of the manoeuvre, apart from forcing passengers to perform contortions to use the toilet, is to add an extra row in economy class.

What might at first appear to be an insignificant detail is far from it from the point of view of airline finance directors. Bloomberg reports that this measure will enable Jet Blue to add up to 12 seats to its Airbus 320s, increasing their capacity to 162 seats. This generates 100 million of additional revenue. For its part, American Airlines indicated that the possibility of making the cabins of its Airbus A321s and Boeing 737-800s denser should bring in 500 million dollars over one year.

Long gone are the days when Boeing 747s, the "giants of the skies" as they were then known, offered space, lots of space. Admittedly, this was the early 70s, and aircraft were still shrouded in a glamorous aura, while conviviality on board was the order of the day. The prestigious American airline Pan Am had transformed the upper cabin of its 747 into a luxury restaurant, while the American Airlines piano bar was a popular place for sing-alongs. In a less original but just as luxurious style, Air France, Japan Airlines, Iberia and Qantas all offered a wide range of meals. a lounge with bar. Even economy class was designed as a living space, with some airlines going so far as to separate the seats in the central aisle by a mini partition to create more privacy.

In those days, flying was an unusual experience. The exact opposite of today, when flying often boils down to buying a seat to get from A to B as quickly as possible. And what's more, at the best possible price. The 'good value for money' factor even takes precedence among business travellers. "Personally, I find that business class is generally not justified, even on a long-haul flight. Many people find it difficult to sleep on planes, whatever their class of travel. A sleeper seat may therefore seem superfluousIt's a great time to be here," says Peter Semone, head of a consulting firm based in Asia and the United States and former vice-president of the Asia-Pacific Tourism Association (PATA).

Airlines, which have to juggle their economic imperatives with the demands of passengers, are therefore seeking to make the most of passenger revenue per seat while offering a cabin with optimum comfort in all classes of service, to avoid encouraging competition. In addition, there is another empirical element among travellers: the ever-increasing difference between the front and rear of the aircraft.

Just take a look at the social networks. Complaints about the deterioration in service in economy class are legion, and have been summed up perfectly by the British magazine The Economist. In an article published in 2016, the prestigious magazine didn't hesitate to describe it as a "cattle class", from "cattle class. It has to be said that spacing in economy class has been shrinking all the time, and the seat in particular. While American airlines are at the forefront of the criticism levelled at them by the American consumer - who is very used to this - airlines in the rest of the world are not exempt from reproach.

Weight-loss treatment in the cabin

Over the past forty years, the economy class seat has undergone a singular transformation. slimming cure. The distance between each row, which fluctuated between 86 cm and 91 cm in the 70s, has since fallen by eight to nine cm. Today, the average is between 78.5 cm and 81 cm, with Virgin Atlantic even breaking a sad record with a distance of 76.2 cm on some of its aircraft, according to specialist online site Seatguru. Airlines and aircraft manufacturers will reply that today's seats are much more ergonomic than those of the past, and that their thinner seats have saved two or three cm of space. In fact, Boeing claims that today's seat, with its 81 cm seat pitch, offers equivalent comfort to that of an 86 cm seat dating from the mid-1980s.

However, some airlines are reluctant to accept this shrinking of space in economy class. Asian carriers generally remain generous. ANA, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Philippine Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airlines still offer, on certain aircraft models, a distance between rows ranging from 83 cm to 85.5 cm... For their part, French airlines are not doing too badly. Air France offers an average row spacing of 81.5 cmSome Boeing 777-200ERs even offer a distance of 83.5 cm to 86 cm. Reunion's Air Austral even goes as far as 88 cm on some of its aircraft.

However, density is not only measured by the number of rows added, but also affects the rows themselves. Many companies have succeeded in inserting one additional seat per rowThis means ten seats instead of an average of nine on the Airbus A330 and Boeing 777, and nine instead of eight on the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. There's no magic trick when it comes to seat width: five to six centimetres have been lost in thirty years, with an average of 43.5 cm between each armrest, compared with 48.3 cm in 1985. And some companies even like to go as low as 40 cm!

Airlines are therefore doing everything they can to maximise their rear cabins. Options such as reserving a seat in what airlines now call "comfort zones" - generally near the emergency exits - or reserving seats side by side are all available for a price. At Air France, for example, the Seat Plus option, offering extra legroom, is sold for between €50 and €70, depending on the length of the flight. A 'Duo' seat, which allows you to travel in a row of two on a long-haul flight, costs €30, and €40 in the upper cabin of the Airbus A380.

Even better! Premium Economy, which has been on the scene for the past decade, is being emulated. "Today's business classes have widened the gap with economy class, leaving the way open for an intermediate class for which passengers are prepared to pay. That's the advantage of Premium Economy"said Marco Sansavini, Iberia's commercial vice-president, in an interview with Business Traveller magazine last year.

Premium Economy is therefore the nec plus ultra of economy class because of its far superior conditions of comfort to the 'cattle class' stigmatised by The Economist: row spacing of 93 cm to 96 cm on average, seat width of 48.3 cm to 50 cm, greater recline, all accompanied by a larger video screen, a computer socket and priority boarding. The champion in terms of space is Air New Zealand, with a seat spacing of 103 cm, while the comfortable shell seat on Air France's Premium Economy is reminiscent of the business classes of the 90s.

The commonplace child seat

Contrary to the restrictive trend, First and Business class are the most popular classes. all the industry's innovations. Starting with the sleeper seat, which offers between 1.80 and 2 metres of space. But this is no longer the only selection criterion, as it can be found on absolutely all airlines. In first class, the ultimate luxury reconfigures the cabin. Mastery of space on board: this notion was taken on board by traditional carriers such as Air France and Lufthansa when they recently redesigned their Première cabins, but it has also taken on a new dimension by a cartel of airlines whose Première cabins are taking on the appearance of private jets, or even ocean liners.

This is the case with Emirates, Etihad and Singapore Airlines, three airlines which offer true private suites, similar to those found on top-of-the-range cruise ships. Etihad describes its 'Residence' class as a living space. In fact, until now, no one has gone so far in luxury Among scheduled airlines, the suite comprises three rooms with a lounge, a bedroom and a shower room. The airline also offers an Apartment or First Suites, depending on the type of aircraft. For its part, Emirates was the first to offer a fully insulated suite, complete with bathroom. As for Singapore Airlines, its new Airbus A380 suite is equipped with a swivel armchair and a bed, which can be doubled when travelling as a couple.

New generations of business class are also on the horizon. The entry into service of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350 will enable many airlines to offer completely redesigned cabins. Lufthansa is currently working on a new business class that will offer more space with a configuration of three or four seats. However, we will have to wait until 2020 to test the new product. For the time being, we can already enter the future for good with Finnair, whose business class is accompanied by a series of innovations where every part of the cab is important From the lighting, reminiscent of Scandinavian sunrises, to temperature and humidity control, to Scandinavian touches in the service.

The feeling of well-being now permeates new-generation business classes, with the prize for innovation going to Qatar Airways, which is revolutionising cabin space. Always at the cutting edge of technology, last year the Qatari airline launched a revolutionary business classbecause its spacing is totally flexible. The armchairs swivel to face each otherThe walls slide to transform the space into a mini meeting room with multimedia screen or a family area for dining or watching a film.

Towards a single cab

What will travel look like in the 2030s? Many experts believe that, over the next fifteen years, the traditional division between First-Business-Premium Economy and Economy cabins is likely to break down and be replaced by an aircraft organised into spaces and seats. If airlines are already segmenting their economy class offer, why not extend it to a single-cabin aircraft in the future? The aircraft of tomorrow Will it become a vast space dotted with seats with à la carte options?

Some specialists in cabin interior design, including Zodiac Aerospace, are giving this very serious thought. "Today's cabins are based on the idea of keeping passengers in their seats as much as possible. With the Desire Lines concept, Zodiac Aerospace LifeStyle is proposing a unique cabin with a flexible architecture that is closer to the cruise ship experience. Zodiac has designed activity modulesThese include rows of seats, some of which are face-to-face, luxury seats - equivalent to those found in business class - as well as activity 'areas' such as shops, a bar area, a snack area, social areas and even a bunk area with a futon mattress look."explains the equipment manufacturer.

Such a range of services would encourage passengers to move around more in the cabin, break the monotony of the flight, get some exercise and, above all, forget about the feeling of confinement. As for the airlines, this would be a win-win situation, since they could sell services in addition to the price of the journey. Still missing a new generation of appliances which would allow such flexibility. But this solution seems likely, as the prospect of very long-haul flights looms on the horizon. For example, Qantas, which recently launched a non-stop flight between London and Perth in Western Australia - meaning 18 hours on board - hopes to be able to offer a non-stop London-Sydney flight by 2022. This would add another two to three hours to your time in the air. According to Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas, a future aircraft for its very long-haul routes could include a small fitness area, for example.

Many designers working on the cabin concept of the future are also pinning their hopes on the widespread use of virtual reality in the cabin. Emirates Airlines, for the new First Class Private Suite in its Boeing 777-300ERs, has installed very high resolution screens in all six Suites, including those in the middle of the cabin. In a recent interview with the BBC, the airline's CEO Tim Clark explained that the high-resolution screens, linked to cameras on the aircraft, were so perfect that they offered a much better view than the eye could see. But, in the future, virtual reality could go even further. For several hours, passengers could be virtually transported to mountain or seaside scenery, without leaving their seats, but with the incredible sensation of being alone in a dream landscape. A paradox? Probably, since the ultimate comfort will be to make you forget about the plane!